Fight for Love
by DJMartini911
Summary: Sequel to I'm free, a generation ahead. Heiseki finds out why his father is willing to die for his mother, and why he himself is willing to die for someone who is precious for him. Rated T for some adult situations and some violence
1. Chapter 1

Author's notes: I made this over spring break, it was a quick sequel to I'm free another generation ahead

Disclaimer: I"M SAYING THIS ONCE BECAUSE I DON"T WANT SAY IT AGAIN! I DON"T OWN NARUTO!!!

Chapter 1

It was calm. There was no wind, the temperature was fifty degrees and it was sunny. It was a good day. Heiseki could hear the birds singing from a good distance away. He sighed and leaned back against a tree. Then there was the explosion.

He fell down and hit the ground running. He wasn't called "the warrior stone" for nothing. Despite that he had never been able to graduate the academy, he was good at fighting and was unshakable when anything came his way. His father gave him his name, wishing that he would be unmovable when any enemy came against him, but it was Heiseki's choice to grow in that.

Heiseki was called WS by all his closest friends, some called him Red Eyes, because of a genetic defect in his byakugan. His eyes weren't white, they were red. He wore a red shirt, a red bandana over his head, to hide his white hair, and black pants. Around his waist were several hira shuriken. They were fastened into a belt, but he could clip and un-clip them easily. He didn't wear the normal sandals, instead, he favored heavy boots with a steel plate in between the sole of the foot and the treads on the bottom.

He had been waiting for the explosion. His father and mother, along with his grandpa and grandma, on his mother's side, his father hadn't even seen his parents in over eighteen years, five years longer then Heiseki had been alive, were somewhere in this forest. His grandpa's friends were there as well.

His grand parents weren't that old, his grandpa had married at a young age, twenty, and his daughter was born only a few years after. She married at a young age too, eighteen, to an exiled ninja from The Village Hidden in the Rain, with whom she had been dating nearly four years.

He smiled as he began to sense his father's chakra, which was nearly indistinguishable under his grandpa's. He climbed into the trees using chakra control, something his father had taught him outside of the academy, and began to run through the trees. He had a bad habit of trying to go faster then he should, and would occasionally miss a branch, but usually quick thinking saved him.

Usually.

Today, he was on a roll. He smiled; maybe his mom had cooked today. Sakura's cooking was fine, but his mother's was even better then his grandma's.

Spurred on, he ran faster. He stopped when he felt a strong blast of chakra. His parents had tried to get him to notice the difference in chakras. They had succeeded in a way, but not to the extent his mother had hoped. He could only describe chakras in color; this one could only be described as red.

He knew it was his grandpa's. It was the reason why they were out here. His grandfather could control this chakra only a little, too much would cause it to shorten his life span. His father thought of an idea to avoid that, which was what they were practicing.

His grandpa had explained to him before, the last time he had 'dropped in' on them, that he had two chakras. One from a demon sealed in him, and his own. His father's idea was that if he kept a layer of his own chakra over his skin and the red chakra over that. If it worked, the hokage would be so much stronger then he was now.

It was already indisputable that Naruto was among the top three hokage, the fourth being first, the third being second and him the third, but that bothered him. He wanted to be the top, number one.

Heiseki drew strength from that.

Heiseki admired his grandpa more than anything. His dream was to be the Hokage too someday. He wanted to be the number two hokage of all time. Once his mother asked him why number two, he answered, "I'd like to keep it realistic, because no one can beat grandpa."

His mother spent no time wasting to tell his grandpa that.

Heiseki decided to move more cautiously, slowly and keeping an eye out for any stray weapons, but then he realized he was still over a hundred yards away from his grandpa, _although that doesn't mean Dad won't necessarily hit me, _he thought and laughed.

His Dad wasn't exactly a good aim. He had the skill to hit a human twenty feet away from him, but that was if they were standing still. Beyond that, he wouldn't even touch his throwing weapons for fear of hitting his squad mates, even if they were behind him.

Heiseki prided himself on being a better aim then his father, but when he bragged about it, his father would laugh, punch him lightly on the arm and say, "That's not a great feat," his father knew his weaknesses, and didn't lie to himself about them.

Heiseki wanted to be like that.

Heiseki spent hours each day trying to grade himself on his skills, this was the order he thought of so far, chakra control, D, genjutsu, C, normal taijutsu, F, his father's Taijutsu, A, ninjutsu, D, weapon skills, D (which was still better then his father's) and spontaneity, A.

He considered spontaneity something to be proud of, it meant that in times when you needed it, you could pull an ace out of your sleeve when you didn't know he had one, like the ninja centerfold. He thought he had made it himself, but his grandpa shamelessly admitted he had come up with it first.

He had a knack for doing what people considered impossible. Once, he had escaped under the eyes of the anbu black ops while waiting for his grandpa to come and get him after he had smeared paint all over the fourth's and third's faces. He didn't like them because they were sometimes considered better then his grandpa.

Since he had managed to get back after repainting the faces while they still hadn't notice him missing, he got out of trouble, but his father knew. He just did, and it was slightly creepy, but it was so cool at the same time, he didn't even directly comment on it.

He lifted up some Sake to his lips and drank some, "Some prankster had painted the fourth's and third's faces today," he said calmly.

His mother looked up, "R-really?" she said shyly. She was a shy person, she never raised her voice. Not once, and Heiseki never thought she would.

"Yes, I wonder if they know what those two did…"

Heiseki had just grunted.

"Do you know?" his father said after taking another sip.

"Naw, not really," Heiseki said. He wasn't fooled, he knew his father knew that it was him who had done it.

"Well, they both died to save this village," he said, "The third died fighting Orochimaru, and the fourth sealed the Nine-tailed fox into the current Hokage, your grandpa."

Heiseki never once desecrated those two faces again. The others, sure, but not those two, he gained such a respect for those two. He often went up onto those two faces when he felt sad or upset in anyway and would think.

He found he liked to think.

Normally, not at all, but he made time to, during school mostly, Sakura often went straight to the Fourth Hokage's face to find him when he skipped. Sometimes he switched it up and went on the third's, but he more often went on the fourth, even if it meant he would get caught.

Heiseki soon got to where his father was training with his grandpa. Sakura, Hinata, his grandma, and his mother were on the side. Sakura looked bored. He snuck over and sat in the trees above them, "I'll never understand how those two could enjoy getting beat up like that…" Sakura said watching them.

Heiseki watched his father fight for a while, he fought almost on all fours, like a wolf. His father hadn't summoned his partner in battle, but that was fine, Kurofu didn't like being summoned during the day anymore, which was just fine for all parties involved. Especially Heiseki, Heiseki had to put a bed out for the wolf demon when he was summoned in his room, and Kurofu snored, loudly.

Kurofu had an annoying habit of sticking around longer then he should, but Heiseki could predict how that would work out to be an advantage, it meant less summoning, which meant less chakra used and also less time, a second in a fight could turn out to be an advantage.

He looked over his shoulder, "Hey, Tio-noro! They're there."

"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?" Noriko said shaking his head. Noriko sighed and summoned his sword, which looked like a sawtooth shark's nose over his forearm. Noriko was dressed all in a sea green color, he even wore gloves that were that color. His hair was black, and his head band was a circle of waves. He charged his father from behind. It was an underhanded tactic, but Heiseki let it slide.

Mostly because his father didn't let it slide.

His father held him down, "Yield," he ordered.

"I yield, what does that make it?"

"How should I know? It's over the hundreds at least."

"Want to just start over from zero? This will be the fourth time doing that," He said as Heiseki's father let him get up.

"Sure, but it's the fifth, and how did you find us?"

"A little spy," Noriko said, "You know him."

His father's eyes narrowed, "Heiseki!"

Heiseki knew that tone. He went down without any ado, covering his backside, "Yes, Dad?"

"Aren't you supposed to be in school?" His father said growling.

Heiseki sat down so he didn't have to worry about his rear, his father constantly reminded him that he wasn't too old enough to bend over his knee, "School's boring, I learn more from you then Sakura! Besides, it's a sub, they're so easy to trick!"

"Hey!" Sakura shouted from the sidelines.

"Who is the sub?" Zev said still glaring, his eyes beginning to turn yellow, mostly because Heiseki had just insulted Sakura even though it was the truth.

"Sashii…"

His father's eyes reverted to the normal blue, he tired to keep a glare going but burst out laughing, "Fine, fine, I suppose you can stay with us."

Heiseki jumped up, "Yeah!"

"But you're grounded from ramen."

Heiseki fell back down, "how long?"

"Only for an hour," his grandpa said getting up, his red chakra dissipating, "because I'm going to treat you when we get back."

"Naruto…" Hinata said shaking her head from the back.

"I am the parent you know," Heiseki's father said looking at him.

"Yeah, and I'm the spoiler, Zev, I mean, grandparent.

Zev sighed and shook his head, "Well, I must admit, I'm impressed, I'll let it slide, just this once though, if this happens again, I'll be very, very, _very_, upset, understand?"

"Yes sir!" Heiseki said jumping up. He looked around, "hey, where's Mr. Apathetic?"

Zev picked Heiseki up by the back of his shirt, "That's, Mr. Uchiha to you!" Heiseki laughed as Zev put him back down and patted him on his shoulder, "I just wish I knew what to do with you sometimes…"

"Feed me?" Heiseki said hopefully.

"Not a chance, hollow leg," Zev said laughing.

"Well, it is about noon, why don't we break for lunch?" Naruto said winking at Heiseki, "Your mother cooked today's lunch."

Heiseki jumped for joy and ran over to his mother, "Whadja' cook? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

His mother giggled a little. Heiseki noticed how young she seemed, if someone didn't know better, they might have assumed his mother was his older sister. She was so young. Once, Heiseki heard Sakura say to her that she was kept younger by his father. Something in his body kept her looking younger, which they had managed to deduce from the same thing happening to Hinata and Naruto, who, while were really over forty, seemed closer to thirty. Naruto's charka had amazing rejuvenating properties if used right, although, whatever was in Zev was much better. Sakura's life goal was to be able to copy it, which she had managed to a degree.

Heiseki asked once, "How did some of Dad get into you?"

His mother had blushed horribly and his father said, "I'll explain when you're married, okay?"

Heiseki sat down next to his mother as she brought out the food, with two extra plates then was originally needed.

Zev looked at her, "Leta, did you know Heiseki was going to come today?"

She smiled and looked at him. She looked down, as she put some food on a plate for him. He sighed, "I'd appreciate it if we didn't condone this behavior…"

Heiseki looked at the two of them, "What are you two saying to each other?" his parents had an ability to talk to each other through their thoughts.

"Nothing, Heiseki, nothing to worry about," Zev said taking the now loaded plate.

Heiseki took a plate and Leta dished it up for him. Naruto put a plate out in front of her, "Extra for me, please," he said kissing her on her forehead.

Leta smiled and gave him an extra big helping. Zev put out his plate, she looked at him, "Hey… if a kiss was all it took," she leaned closer to him and Heiseki strained to hear, "You'd be getting so much more for keeping me young."

Zev laughed and ate his food. Heiseki got up and sat over by Naruto, "Hey grandpa! How close are you to getting that new control down?"

Naruto shrugged, "Well, it still has a way to go, I was never good at chakra control. I just let my stamina take care of it."

Heiseki nodded, "Tell me when you get it, I want to be the one to shout it out!"

"Shout what?"

"That you've surpassed all the others, the hokages I mean."

Naruto smiled and took the hat that had the fire kanji on it, and put it on Heiseki's head, "Okay, I'll let you do that."

Heiseki gulped down all his food before Leta could notice and stammer out, "Heiseki… chew your food…"

Heiseki sighed contentedly, "I'm still tasting it."

"Your brain is probably just noticing that you ate something!" Naruto said holding out his plate and Heiseki's for more.

Hinata struck Naruto's wrist, "You're where he gets it from!" she said a little angry, "no wonder why he's always shoveling it in like you eating ramen!"

Naruto looked dejectedly at Hinata, "Aw… Hinata, we're just hungry!"

Hinata glared at Naruto as he leaned closer to her. He kissed her and then Sakura broke them two up, "No you don't, we let you get one in and then you go for hours!"

"You're still a monster sometimes," Naruto commented.

Heiseki got up and ran. He knew two things about Sakura, don't get in between her and Sasuke, she'll run you down like you weren't there, and two, don't call her a monster or make fun of her monster strength.

He hit the deck expecting his grandpa to go flying over his head, but instead heard laughter. He looked back as he felt a surge of red chakra go over his head. He saw his grandpa appear to do what appeared to be the rotation whorl, which members of the Hyuuga clan could do.

He laughed, "That's what we were just practicing, Sakura, you didn't forget already did you?"

Sakura sighed, "Yeah, but I thought Zev was weak compared to my punches, so I thought that would still get you."

Naruto glared at her, "It's the nine-tailed fox's charka… did you really think a meager blow like that could break it?"

Heiseki shuddered thinking of a blow that didn't constitute as meager compared to the nine-tailed fox's chakra.

Sakura bowed, "Yes sir."

Naruto put a hand on her shoulder, "Hey, I didn't mean to sound so mad, it just that I thought you'd know better."

Sakura nodded, "Yes, you're right."

Naruto picked up his and Heiseki's plates, "Now, how about seconds?"

Leta smiled and dished them both up.

-S-t-o-n-e-W-a-r-r-i-o-r-

Zev knocked on Heiseki's door, "Hei! Come on, it's almost time for school!"

Heiseki was just crawling through the window, "Shoot," he whispered to himself as he fell through.

"What was that?" Zev asked on the other side of the door, when Heiseki didn't respond he said, "I'm coming in."

Heiseki watched as Zev fiddled with the lock on the door, he had less then thirty seconds before he'd be through. He took of his shirt and did a handstand next to the wall and began to do push ups, "eleven, twelve," he said as his father came through, he waited until he was at fifteen, "I'm up already," he said standing up straight already.

Zev nodded, "Uh…huh…" he didn't sound convinced, "Well, put a shirt on and let's get going. your mother is making breakfast."

Heiseki grabbed a red shirt and then stopped. He dropped it and picked up a deep purple shirt, as well as a purple bandana that he tied around his neck. He'd be back for the red clothing after his mom and dad had left.

Heiseki ran down the stairs, "All right!" he shouted as he smelled his mother's cooking. He sat down at the table and left his father with very little. He ate it all in record time.

He got up, "Well, I suppose I should get going now."

Zev stood up, his food unfinished, "I'll be going with you."

Heiseki cursed inwardly, "I'll be alright."

"That's what we're afraid of."

"Oh…"

Zev opened the door and motioned out it, "After you," Heiseki walked out slowly, thinking rapidly. Zev sighed, "Hei, you have to do better in school."

"Why?"

"You'll never become a ninja if you don't," Zev said, he looked at Hei, "You do want to be a ninja don't you?"

"Of course!" Heiseki shouted, "I want to be the number two Hokage!"

"Number two?" Zev said before recalling, "You mean after your grandpa right?"

"Right!" Hei said nodding.

"He had to go through school too."

"He skipped a lot too!"

"That doesn't make it right!"

"So? It's more challenging then getting every question right on the tests!"

Zev smiled, "Want to know a secret?"

"What?" Heiseki asked, a little curious, but not wanting to know because it would be one more thing he'd have to explain away.

"You have a test today."

Heiseki groaned, "I didn't study at all."

"That wasn't the secret. The secret is, you don't have to study…"

"What?"

"You want to be a ninja right? Well, you don't necessarily have to _know_ things, you just have to _know who knows_ things…"

"I see…" Heiseki said rubbing his hands together, this could be fun.

Zev led Heiseki down the halls and opened the door. Sakura looked at him, "Oh, I thought Heiseki wasn't coming in today, is he feeling better?"

"What?" Zev said looking at her, "What are you talking about?"

"This," Sakura said holding a note out to him.

Zev looked at it, and then at Heiseki, "How'd you get my signature?"

Heiseki shrugged, trying to ignore everyone in the class room, "I always could…" he muttered.

Zev looked at it, "Uh…huh… that explains that two hundred dollar withdrawal from my bank account the other day…"

Sakura looked at Heiseki, "Heiseki! How could you copy your father's signature?"

Zev waived it off, "It's okay, we'll just have to be more careful in the future to make sure he doesn't do this again," Zev was fairly impressed by Heiseki's ability to come up with ways of skipping school, he just wished it was put to more practical use.

Heiseki walked up to a corner of the room. He winced as he heard someone shout, "Hey blood-shot! Couldn't come to school without your daddy holding your hand?"

Zev's eyes narrowed, "I would like to know who said that!"

"That was Akihito," Sakura said, "Akihito, stand up!"

Akihito stood up, he was an average height, he had black hair and brown eyes. All in all, fairly average, but one thing. He was considered the best looking out of the class by popular vote of all the girls.

Right now, Zev couldn't have cared less if he was the ugliest or the best looking, he looked at Sakura, "Does he always give my son problems?"

"Yeah, everyday that he shows, it's a problem."

"Heiseki!" Zev barked in his 'tone', "If I understand, that's well beyond the three times that I say you have to give."

Heiseki bit his lip and looked across, half of him wanted to smear the kid's guts along the walls, he was sick of having to let all the insults slide by. He was the reason why he didn't wear red any day he bothered going to school, but he didn't want to beat him up at the same time.

He was Emi's boyfriend.

She always stood slightly apart from him. She sometimes intervened on Heiseki's behalf. She was cute, intelligent, and very kind to her friends, but if you messed with her friends, that was a big no-no in her book. This was something Heiseki made sure never to do, not because of her rage at people who did that, but for fear of her holding a grudge against him. He had a monster crush on her.

Emi wore a black sleeveless dress that came down to her knees, it had two slits up the sides which revealed that she wore shorts underneath. Her dress had a white embroidered flower on it on the back. Her hair was jet black and came to the small of her back. She wore the standard sandals that most ninja wore.

"Heiseki!" Zev said in his 'tone' again, "You can beat the crap out of him if you want!"

Heiseki bit his lip for a moment later, he turned and then Akihito said, "See? He's a big chicken."

The thunder covered everyone's laughter.

The only kekkei genkais that Heiseki had mastered on his father's side were _Relatzer no Jutsu, _and _Chidorian. Relatzer no jutsu _was a move that made the user move like lightning, _Chidorian _was a more 'finished' form of _Chidori_, except it created a thundering sound and created four balls of lighting that were on the user's hands and feet. They made a crackling sound like lightning and were released when the user struck the target, causing a large explosion.

Heiseki only used _Relatzer no jutsu_ this time.

The nervous gulp was audible in the room, almost as if everyone had done it at the same time. For that matter, they might have. Heiseki switched to a relaxed stance as gravity peeled Akihito off the wall, a room away. He had flown right through a wall.

Emi laughed, "I suppose he had that coming, good job Heiseki."

That made it worth it.

Zev growled, "Heiseki!" Heiseki flinched, "That wasn't nearly as strong as it should have been, did you just show pity on him?"

Heiseki began to think, truth be told, he did it because he was afraid that Emi would hate him for it, but he couldn't just come out and admit that. But he didn't want to say he had pity on him either, that would just make him seem weak.

"Uh… well… I didn't think he'd be worth the effort."

"That'll do," Zev said walking away.

Sakura grabbed his collar, "No you don't! You're helping today!"

"Why? I have to go help the Hokage."

"He can wait!" The class flinched as Sakura hit the wall with her free hand, "You have to pay for the-" she trailed off as the wall crumbled and the other class on the other side noticed the lack of wall that their class now lacked.

"Damages? I think you just made more then Heiseki did," Zev said laughing.

Sakura reached back to punch him. The class was surprised when he caught it, "But if you want, I'll help with Taijutsu today."

Sakura brought the class outside for taijutsu practice, "Okay, today, since Zev is helping, the challenge is that you have to land two blows on him," she walked over to him, "go easy okay?"

He sighed and took a ready stance.

Student after student got their two blows, after some difficulty. Soon it was Heiseki's turn. He rushed and got punched in the face. Zev smiled as Heiseki wiped some blood from his mouth. Heiseki knew that smile.

"You really want me to come after you?" he asked as he stood.

"You're going to have to," he said laughing. Thunder rolled and Heiseki was in the air with Zev holding his foot, "Perhaps you can keep me entertained today, I didn't even bother going a quarter strength with these others at Sakura's request, but with you," he said as he threw Heiseki to the ground and took the stance for _Ookami no kiba _style taijutsu. His own taijutsu.

Heiseki copied the stance, "Fine! Get ready!"

Zev's response was, _"Chidorian!"_

Heiseki returned the shout and charge Zev. They matched blow for blow. Heiseki was good, he spent more hours training in this taijutsu then he did in school, which wasn't saying much but the point remains the same, the first one to pin the other would be the winner.

Although by the fury with which they fought you would have thought it was the first one to kill the other.

After they had burned off their _Chidoirans,_ Zev grabbed Heiseki's hand and pulled him under him. Heiseki flipped over his back and on to Zev's. Zev jumped back and flipped so that he was over Heiseki, but Heiseki kept a grip on Zev's back when he had flipped and continued until he was over his back. Zev sent a small burst of chakra through his arm into Heiseki, his type was lightning and it made him cringe. Zev flipped him over and then sat over him. Heiseki flipped back so that he was over Zev. He sat up, "Yes! I beat-"

Zev grabbed his collar and pulled him over his side and Zev sat on him, "You're pinned," he said when he put his legs through Heiseki's and pushed his arms to the ground, "You can't get out!"

"No fair! I had won!"

"It's not over till the-"

"Pink haired kunochi goes on the rampage again!" one student shouted.

Zev and Heiseki both looked up after dodging the kunochi's attack, "What?"

"Zev! Look at the damage you did!"

Zev and Heiseki looked around; the training ground was in ruins from their _Chidorians_. Heiseki looked at Zev, "Now would be a good time to skip school."

Zev hastily agreed.

When they were far enough away, Zev looked at Heiseki, "You better get back to school."

"Are you crazy!" Heiseki shouted at him out of breath.

"Well, if your mother finds out, I'll be in the dog house."

"I doubt it," Heiseki said shaking his head, "I mean after all, your like her… her…"

"Husband?" Zev said laughing, "You're right of course, but I can talk to your mother from here, and she says you need to go back."

"I don't believe you."

"Well, your grandpa will be there."

"Fine, fine," Heiseki said reluctantly turning.

"One last thing," Zev said, "Is the reason why you never wear red to school because of that kid?"

Heiseki sighed and nodded, "Yeah…"

"If he ever does it again, don't hold back, actually," Zev said smiling, "Why don't you wear red tomorrow and tempt him."

Heiseki smiled and shook his head; the idea had its merits.

"Which reminds me," Zev said looking at him, "Why did you really hold back?"

Heiseki was slient, "Can we just drop it?"

His father was solid for a moment, "Okay," he said finally, "I'll just trust that next time if he didn't learn his lesson this time you'll go harder."

"I don't think I want to, Emi's his girlfriend and she gets mad at people who attack her friends."

Zev put a hand on his shoulder, "I wonder if that's the only reason…"

Heiseki was glad he was like a rock, otherwise he would have blushed and his red face would have given him away.

Zev didn't push it any further, "Okay, I'll see you later today."

"See you!" Heiseki said running back. He climbed in through the class room window and sat down. He didn't mess up like this morning and was completely silent.

Sakura, with her back turned was writing on the board "Okay, now, let's see. Chakra, to put it simply, the energy that shinobi require to perform ninjutsu. Can you tell me what the two chakras are composed of?"

When everyone was silent for a minute, Heiseki blurted out, "The two energies come from those in the body, drawn from the body's cells, and those of mental and spiritual energy acquired over the course of much training and experience. The arts of shinobi are born of a combination of those two energies in what's called manipulating the chakras and focused in what is known as weaving the signs, or using hand signs to create a jutsu."

Everyone stared at Heiseki. Sakura most of all, "How did you know that? You have an F in everything because you never show!"

"He never shows because he skips to come see me," A voice broke out, everyone jerked to attention at the Hokage's arrival.

Sakura nodded and then pointed accusingly at Heiseki, "WAIT! How on earth did you get back in! I'm going to have your head for the damage to the training grounds!"

Naruto put a hand on Sakura's shoulder, "it's okay, I fixed it all up, that's why I'm here."

Sakura calmed, "Oh, okay," then her rage grew again, "WHAT ABOUT THE WALLS THEN!"

He pointed, "All patched up, and a genjutsu will do for the wall there," he said making a few hand signs that Heiseki couldn't see because of the speed at which he did them as he created a false wall.

Sakura grumbled and looked the wall, "Fine, fine," she pulled out a paper, "That reminds me, I made new seating charts."

Everyone groaned, usually because they got paired up with someone they didn't like, since Sakura only gave seating charts when she was mad and didn't get to fume.

Naruto turned to leave, "Well, since that's cleared up, I better-"

"Oh no you don't!" Sakura said grabbing him, "You're going to help with class today!" A log suddenly replaced Naruto, "NARUTO!"

"That's Naruto-sama to you!" Naruto said from the window sill, "I don't like class rooms, so, well, you're on your own!"

Sakura ran to the window sill and groaned as Naruto disappeared. She shook her head and went back to her desk, "Heiseki! Since you have the easiest time slipping in and out, I'm placing you at the seat farthest from the window! Third row!"

Heiseki knew better then to argue, she could have put him in the front, and he counted that blessing first on the list.

"Emi! Since you have the best grades in the class and a near perfect attendance, I'm putting you next to him, maybe some of you will rub off on him!"

Never mind, that was the first.

Emi sat down and put her books on the desk. Heiseki sighed and pulled out the chair for her seemingly apathetically, "Thanks," she said as she sat down and he pushed her back in.

"Don't mention it."

She smiled and stared at him for a long time. He matched her stare. At first he didn't mind, but then he realized that it was a little awkward. He brushed his face as if he was looking for something on it, "Something on my face?"

"Oh," she said snapping out of it, "It's just, red's my favorite color."

"Mine too," he said smiling, "I normally wear mostly red, just not to school."

"Well, look, Akihito needs to be taken down a notch or two, so don't worry about him, I won't be getting mad if you knock him around every so often."

Heiseki kept getting things to add to the top of his blessings, first on his list now was that Sakura had put him next to Emi, second was that they weren't in the front, third was Emi just asked him to kick Akihito around some.

"This day just keeps getting better and better," someone grumbled from the front, Akihito to be exact, "First, I get kicked through the wall by blood-shot," a kunai to his test paper in front of him made him recant it, "I mean, Heiseki, secondly, his father doesn't even consider me worth his time going all out on, third we have this test!"

"Enough talking, or I'll rip it up more then Heiseki already has!"

Akihito took the kunai and glared at Heiseki, "Well," he said chucking it back and missing horribly, "He started it."

"Wow, you're worse then my dad," Heiseki said getting up and retrieving his knife.

"How bad is he?" Emi asked.

Heiseki was a stone and didn't huff up impressed that she had asked him, "He couldn't' hit the broad side of Akihito's ego inflated head."

Emi laughed and Akihito freaked out, "Emi! Whose side are you on!"

"Well, you are pretty narcissistic."

Akihito was silent. Heiseki almost laughed when he realized that Akihito was flipping through a dictionary. He sighed, "She's saying you're egotistical."

Akihito grunted and began flipping to the E section.

"How about, conceited?" He began flipping to the C section, "pompous?" Akihito grunted again and flipped to the P section, "That dictionary have a thesaurus? Look for an antonym of humble."

Everyone laughed the dictionary suddenly very apparent in everyone's eyes. Emi laughed too. Akihito shoved the dictionary in his desk and began to work on the paper.

Sakura shouted, "All of you! WORK ON YOUR TEST!"

"Pink haired kunochi goes on the rampage again," someone muttered.

Heiseki looked at the test, he knew the fourth, fifth, and seventh question on the test. He noticed a fly buzzing around, but it wasn't an ordinary bug. He wrote on his paper, Gaichuu, I know the answer to four and five, give me the answer to all of the others, and I'll give you them, and waited for the bug to notice.

The bug flew over his paper for a moment and he didn't chase it away. The bug went back to Gaichuu and Gaichuu held out his finger underneath the table and it landed on it.

Gaichuu wore a black short sleeve shirt that was a little small for him, you could clearly see his muscles underneath. It was a little disturbing sometimes, but not because of how tight his shirt was, sometimes you could catch a bug crawling under his shirt and it would vanish as it went back into his body.

His full name was Aburame Gaichuu.

He talked to it for a moment after he had written down a few answers and it went back over to Heiseki. It spelled out by flying, "I don't know the answers to two, three, nine, and eleven but I can give the rest." The bug then began to give all the answers in the same manner.

When it came to seven, Heiseki knew Gaichuu wasn't pulling him around. He gave Gaichuu the answers to the ones he promised and then the bug came back after relaying the message. It spelled out, "Nice on Akihito, by the way."

Heiseki smiled, today was turning out to be a good day.

He looked around, Inuzuka Oke, one of the students who had a small dog with him all the time, had his dog on his head. The dog would bark occasionally and he would start scratching with his pencil.

Heiseki memorized one and then erased it, he wrote out after erasing his marks to Gaichuu, "give me the answers to one, two, three, nine, and eleven, and I'll give you the others."

When Oke's dog noticed, he barked and Oke set him down on the table. He scratched under his collar and then the dog hopped down and began to run about the room. He hopped up onto Heiseki's desk and the dog barked in his face.

Heiseki scratched in the same spot and after retrieving the note, said, "I'll give you the answers when I write these down, okay?"

The dog jumped down into Emi's lap and waited. She smiled at him but then gave a cautious glance toward Heiseki that said, "Don't trust him," but Heiseki didn't need to be told that.

He knew they were all wrong.

He wrote them down and smiled. He took out a sheet of paper and gave all the wrong answers to the dog and it ran over to Oke. Oke nodded and gave a wicked grin.

Heiseki smiled back and erased all the answers, after Kanshin's gaze was finished on his paper.

Emi looked at him, "if you want," she said sliding her paper under arm, "I have the answers, I know seven's been giving you some trouble."

He smiled and looked at seven, everything appeared in order, except for four.

He copied them all down, "Your four is wrong," he warned as he wrote the correct one and leaned back so she could see.

She laid her head on her desk, "No it's not, this is right."

"Emi! Heiseki! If you two are done, I'd like your tests!"

"Right, sorry Sakura-sensei!" Emi said jumping up and giving her the paper. Heiseki did so as well.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 

"What is wrong with all of you?" Sakura shouted as she slammed the papers down on the table. To her surprise, only Heiseki didn't flinch. He was more stoic today then normal, maybe it was the red, or maybe it was kicking Akihito through four walls today, or maybe he was proud of something and wasn't about to let Sakura take him off cloud nine, or maybe it was that today was the second day in a row that he showed up, on time, without a ANBU black ops holding him in chains.

Sakura held up the papers, "The only one out of all of you to get a hundred percent was Heiseki! And he hasn't even shown up for half the year!"

That got a murmur out of everyone. Kanshin ran up and grabbed his paper, "What! These aren't the answers you had when I was copying off of you!"

"That's because I knew you were," he said smiling.

Oke was about to speak, but Gaichuu's cracking knuckles quieted him. If Oke brought him down, then Heiseki could bring him down, and they didn't see him enough to know if he would take the fall alone or drag some one with him.

Emi held up her hand, "May I see my paper, Sakura-sensei?"

Sakura took the papers and began handing them out starting with Emi, "You got the closest, but four was wrong."

Emi looked at Heiseki, "How'd you know it was wrong?"

"I knew all the time, just like five and seven, I kept those blank so I could as for them to make sure I knew the answers I got were right."

"Wow," Emi said, "I wouldn't have thought about that."

"I'm sure you wouldn't have, you're smart enough to get them yourself; you're a straight A _plus _student."

Emi blushed a little, "Thanks, but how'd you know that I have all A pluses?"

"I sneak in a take peaks at everyone's record."

"That's horrible!"

"A way to pass time," he said shrugging, "It's not like I changed it at all."

Sakura put his sheet in front of him. She had a note next to a hundred percent sign, "I guess doing is better then learning."

He laughed, "It better be if it's the Hokage you're learning with," he said to himself.

Emi looked at him, "You learn from the Hokage?"

"He's my grandpa, normally when I skip I go see him."

"Wow, that's so cool! I always wanted to get to spend a day with him! He's got to be the best of all the hokages!"

He looked at her and smiled, "If you want… I could probably work that out, he always makes time for me," he thought for a moment, "We could skip right now…"

"How?" she said.

Heiseki kept like stone and didn't laugh while pointing at the gaping hole left by Akihito's body in the wall behind him.

"Oh right…"

"We could go now, Sakura keeps her back turned to the black board for a minute and sneaks a peak back then doesn't look back for seven, unless she finishes-" he stopped as Sakura's minute was up while writing today's lesson on the board, "early," he finished as she returned to writing.

"Oh, I couldn't," she said shaking her head emphatically, "Firstly," she started pushing her two index fingers together and bit her tongue a little, "Firstly, I have to stay in class, I have to pay attention… I got to keep my grades up," she stopped pushing her fingers together, "secondly, she'll come after me I vanish, and thirdly, I think Akihito would get pretty upset if I left suddenly.

"Emi! Heiseki!" Sakura said, her seven minutes up, "If you want, maybe you two can teach the class!"

Heiseki walked up, to everyone's surprise. Especially Sakura's, "No matter how great of an amount of chakra you summon and manipulate, if you can't maintain your balance, whatever the technique," he made the signs for his worst technique, the cloning jutsu, and performed it horribly, but better then normal, "you can mess it up so it turns into that."

"Well, we know you aren't graduating this year," Sakura said laughing. Everyone else did too.

Heiseki looked at her, "I'm teaching, would you mind keeping quiet."

Sakura was surprised at how stone coldly he had said that. His voice didn't even waiver. It was like he had done this every day.

He walked to a wall, "So, as I was saying before being rudely interrupted," he put his foot on the wall, "Controling your chakra is very important, you think it's hard doing it for Sakura when your practicing, try doing it when you're fighting," he put his other foot on the wall and walked onto the ceiling, "This is a somewhat advanced chakra control technique that I had to practice a long time before getting it right. I may not be able to perform a cloning jutsu, but this just shows how much you can learn by doing…" he looked at Sakura, "then by sitting around in a class room."

"Save it for when your grades are up," Sakura said from her spot at her desk, "I didn't know you could do that."

"How else did I always drop in when you're with the Hokage?" Heiseki asked as he walked on the ceiling and dropped down in his seat. Emi just stared at Heiseki. While Sakura got distracted by a masked ANBU black ops who had came in to see if Sakura had rounded up Heiseki, he was also known as her husband, Mr. Apathetic, and Sasuke.

Heiseki looked at Emi, "What?" he asked.

"You're like a stone, how can you be so calm, you just made Sakura look like a horrible teacher!"

"My friends don't call me the Warrior Stone for nothing."

"You have friends?" Emi blurted out, "Oh, I'm so sorry I-"

"Hey, WS!"

Heiseki looked over his shoulder at the speaker, "Youryu? What's up?"

Youryu wore his hair short. His hair was jet black and he had a gold diamond on his back that was tied sewn into his vest, despite his mother's advice not to, "I'm skipping, I learned this already," he said. He was the son of Utsuha and Sashii. Utsuha was the son of Sasuke, and if that wasn't enough to get them to become one of the best of friends, Utsuha and Heiseki's father were together on a squad for a while.

"I'm coming too, wait a bit."

Sakura turned and he moved in the first minute. They stopped outside another class room, "Should we get Shinni too?"

"Yeah," Heiseki said nodding.

"But will he skip?"

"Is he his father's son?"

There was a sound above them, "Oh, what are you guys doing?"

"Same as you," Heiseki said, "Skipping out."

Shinni jumped down, "Okay, WS," he said. He stretched and smiled. He wore orange sweatpants with an orange jacket. His father's clothes from when he was his age. His father had kept some of the clothes that had kept since they weren't really battle scorn or anything else.

Shinni was really Heiseki's uncle, but they were the same age, so you wouldn't know it. It also didn't help that Heiseki didn't inherit the fox whiskers that ran in that side of the family, and unlike Heiseki's red eyes, Shinni's where white, the true Hyuuga color. His hair was orange, unlike Zev's and Heiseki's white.

"Wait!" the three looked back and saw Emi running toward them, "I want to come to."

"You don't even know where were going!" Youryu said, "Err… where are we going?"

"To see my dad, where else? Any where else and we'll get yelled at."

"Good point," he said, "Just keep up."

The others began to run but Heiseki stayed behind, "can you keep going?"

"I left at two minutes after her turn, but I'm still pretty freaked out, I shouldn't be doing this!"

He tapped her lightly on the arm, "You got the first part down, the hardest part though-"

"HEY! WHERE'D EMI GO? AND WHERE'S HEISEKI?"

"Is keeping ahead of the adults," he finished grabbing her by the arm and leading her down the hall. He looked around and found the principals office. He pulled her inside and led her to a closet.

"What are you doing?" she whispered.

He put his fingers to his lips and found the bucket. He stepped up on it and moved the ceiling tile. He pulled her up, "First of all, who'd think to look for me in the principal's office?"

That was a good question.

"Secondly, there's a hatch to the roof, that's where we'll go and meet back up with Youryu and Shinni."

"Why there?" she asked following

"You know who Youryu's father is?"

Emi shook her head.

"Utsuha, other wise known as the Dragon Uchiha."

"Wait… are you saying..?"

"He's the one out of us three who can actually summon a creature, namely a wyvern."

"That's not what I'm asking! I'm asking if that means we are going to fly away!"

"Well, he'll fly with his own wings, his mother's Sashii so…" he shrugged as he pulled down the hatch, "it's easier."

Youryu shook his head, "took your sweet time did you?"

"Hey, back off, you need me to find my grandpa anyways!"

"What do you mean by that?" Emi asked.

Shinni stood up, "Heiseki can sense chakras. Not very well-"

"Hey!"

"But we can't at all."

"_Jinryu yubu_!" Youryu shouted, holding his hand up. A burst of wind shot out of his hand and a wyvern appeared seemingly out of nowhere and circled around, "Think you can carry three, Shiryu?"

"Sure, why not?" the sandy colored creature responded.

Emi screamed and jumped behind Heiseki.

"Oh, sorry, forgot to tell you it can talk."

Emi nodded.

"Better get going, your girlfriend's scream probably just told everyone where we are."

Shiryu laid as low on the ground as he could, "Climb on!"

"She's not my girlfriend," Heiseki said as he climbed behind Emi who was behind Shinni.

"Right, sure she isn't," Youryu said as four large purple wings unfurled from the gold diamond on his back.

"Really," he said as they all took flight.

Emi gulped, closed her eyes, and held on as tightly as she could. Shinni looked at Heiseki, "Hey, what direction?"

Heiseki closed his eyes and searched out for any sign of their parents and grandparents chakras. He felt a touch of red chakra and pointed towards the woods, "I can feel a slight amount of red chakra that way, that might be where they are, or it might be residual from two days ago.

"That can't be right," Shinni said as Shiryu turned, "That's impossible for it to be residual from that long ago."

Heiseki suddenly felt a massive burst of red chakra, "That way," he said turning them, "Grandpa just unleashed the fox."

"Oh, that'd explain residual," Shinni said.

"You guys do this a lot?"

"Well, not as much as Heiseki," Youryu said flying close over head, "we at least show up enough to keep our grades up."

"Hey…"

Emi laughed, "I wonder if that means he's the smarter one out of all three of you."

"Ouch," Shiryu said, "that's gotta' hurt."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Sakura-sensei asked us to teach the class and he did," Emi groaned, "Oh no… I'm going to be in sooo much trouble!"

"It's okay, Dad will probably say something."

"I hope so…"

"Okay, Warrior Stone, where to next?"

He closed his eyes and reached out, "That way," he said, "I can sense my mom's chakra too."

"And I can smell her cooking!" Shiryu said, "Hang on!" If Emi could have held on any tighter she would have, but that was physically impossible.

It was still barely enough to keep her held on.

Shiryu landed and unceremoniously dropped all his passengers off on the ground and bounded over to Leta, "Good food! Good food!"

Leta blushed and patted him on the head, "I hadn't counted on _all_ of you."

Zev groaned, "Where you counting on Heiseki?"

"No…" Leta said quietly, "Just Youryu and Shinni."

Zev groaned, "I don't condone this!"

"hey, I already knew the material!" Heiseki said in his defense.

"It's true," Emi said, "He did teach the class."

Zev stopped, "What?"

"Sakura will show up later right?" Heiseki asked and Naruto nodded, "Then ask her when she shows up."

Zev's eyes narrowed, "Fine, but if she asks for it, you're spending not only your days in the school, but the nights to!"

Youryu and Shinni shuddered, "My worst nightmare!"

Naruto looked at him, "Aren't you being a little harsh?"

"No," Zev said flatly.

"I think you could give him a little slack, I mean, he did teach the class for a while," Naruto said.

"That is assuming that they are telling the truth, and that's no excuse since he skips out for most of the year anyways."

Heiseki looked at the shadow clones about, "Hey, grandpa?"

"Yeah, Heiseki?"

"Can you teach me the shadow clone jutsu?"

"Why?"

Emi spoke up, "When he taught the class, he showed us his clone jutsu."

"That didn't go so well, I take," Zev said, as two clones of Naruto and him went at each other.

"No, it didn't."

"Alright," Naruto looked at Emi, "Would you like to go over it as well?"

Emi smiled, "Of course, Hokage-sama! I would love to train with you!"

Naruto smiled at her enthusiasm, "Okay, let's go off by ourselves, I think Zev wants to tear into my son and Youryu for a moment."

Emi and Heiseki looked back at them, "Go on, what's the worst he can do?"

"Want to find out?" he said behind them.

They gulped.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 

Heiseki sat down next to Emi, "We did it," he said looking at an equally tired clone.

Emi nodded, she was exhausted, but she was smiling, "Yeah!"

Naruto smiled and shook his ehad, "I probably shouldn't tell you this, but…"

"What? What? What?" Heiseki begged.

"Well, a shadow clone's information that it learned goes back to the original so," he said smiling, "You could skip school and no one would be the wiser."

Emi smiled and looked at Heiseki, "I bet you're going to get a lot of practice doing this!"

"You bet!" he nearly shouted, "Man, that's so cool!" He looked at their clones, "Hey, can you two go play rock-paper-scissors?"

The two looked at each other, shrugged and walked off. A few moments later Emi's head drooped, "You won."

"Yeah!"

"Well, shall we go back and get something to eat?" He said leading the way back, "Your mother cooked again, Heiseki."

Heiseki bounced up, "Come on, Emi!"

Emi tried to get up but couldn't. She looked at Heiseki, suddenly his enthusiasm was lost and he was stoic again. He picked her up and she put her arms around his neck. He felt solid, like a rock.

When they got back to the spot where Zev had finished with Shinni and Youryu, he found them hanging from a tree. Their feet were bound and were dangling over an open pot.

Naruto stood agape, "How could you?" he asked, "Dangling them over Leta's cooking! That's not mean! That's pure evil!"

Zev cut them down, "It's okay," he said, "it just whets the appetite apparently."

They both scrambled for plates and sat in front of Leta panting like dogs. Leta giggled and said, "sorry, but, ladies first."

"She's asleep," Heiseki said stoically, "You guys can eat."

The two looked at each other, he didn't normally sound like that with his grandpa around. It wasn't unusual; it just meant he was colder then normal. What would bother a normal person couldn't even faze him when he was like this; it was just odd seeing him like that.

They heard foot steps and saw Sakura walking towards them, "Zev your kid is a…" she trailed off, "YOU! I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH YOU RUNNING OFF! BUT THIS TIME YOU TOOK EMI WITH YOU!"

Heiseki didn't flinch, "She's asleep and I'd appreciate it if you would quiet down a little."

Sakura reared back and threw a punch.

Heiseki stepped to the side and tripped her up, "I'll repeat it again, I'd appreciate it if you quiet down a little."

Sakura looked up, she hadn't seen him like this. It was sort of unsettling for a prankster.

"Hey, Sakura," Zev interrupted, "Did Heiseki really stand up and teach the class?"

"Yeah," Sakura said standing and brushing her skirt, "he did."

Zev's only sign of being impressed was a raised eye brow.

Emi stirred, woken by Sakura's shouting. She groaned and rubbed her eyes, "I'm so tired," she stated as Heiseki took off his bandana and made it into a small pillow for her.

Leta pulled out a small metal container with a blue cream in it. She took a small spoonful and mixed it in water, "Here, drink this."

Heiseki closed his eyes and Emi spat out the water, "Oh! Sorry Heiseki!"

"It's okay," he said wiping the water off his face, "I did the same thing to my dad when I first tasted it too."

"What is this stuff?"

"Its chakra packed and made so dense it's solid," Zev explained, "I couldn't sleep before unless I expelled energy, but I can still do that if I need to make more," he cupped his hands and yelled. Lightning shot out of his hands and when he opened them, there was a blue ball, barely larger then a pea, in his hands, "It wasn't until four years I married Leta that I didn't need to do that anymore."

"What happened?" Emi asked.

"You know, Zev has a statue made of him because of it."

"You mean the one that says he's dead?" Emi asked.

"Yeah, you're my star pupil, until today, why don't you tell us?"

"Well, there was an alliance between nearly every nation besides ours, the Village hidden in the Sand and the Village hidden in the Mist and the Village hidden in the Ocean, that village that was founded by Lobo, the leader of the alliance, and Orochimaru, who was teaching him. When Kohona was surrounded by all of it's enemies, one ninja, Zev, went out and killed himself in a sacrificial jutsu that saved the village, and that's where the story ends."

Sakura nodded, "That's right, but what's not told is that he came back to life, somehow, I don't know, I'm a medical doctor, but I can't explain it, three days later he was alive and kicking again, but he has to stay low, if people find out that he's alive, people might try again to finish him off."

Leta's hand slipped in Zev's and tightened her face the perfect picture of worry.

Sakura shook her head, "That's all in the past now," she glared at Emi, "Why'd you skip? You were my perfect student! Straight A _pluses_ no less!"

"Well… uh…" she began to push her index fingers together, Naruto looked at Hinata and raised an eyebrow, "I wanted to get to really meet the Hokage, also, since Heiseki learned a lot from doing rather then sitting in the class room…"

"Well, have you learned anything today?"

Emi put her hands together, "_Kage bushin no jutsu_!"

Sakura looked at Naruto who smiled, "You taught her the shadow clone jutsu?"

"Yep."

"You just made life a whole lot more difficult for me."

"Not really," he said smiling, "One can spend class with you while the other goes of and does whatever, Heiseki can do the same."

Sakura looked at him, "Oh thanks, really, it's hard enough to get him to come when there's one of him! Can you imagine trying to round up two of him?"

"Not really."

"Exactly."

"Ask Iruka, or Ebisu."

"Oh… right…"

Naruto looked at Emi, "I doubt this honor student will be giving you any problems now."

-S-T-O-N-E-W-A-R-R-I-O-R-

"Emi!" Sakura shouted at the shadow clone, "I expect this from Heiseki but not from you!"

Emi sighed, "This works right? I just wanted to try this out."

Sakura walked right up to her, "That's not my point!"

"So I skipped," she said, "Twice in two days, so what? I'm still getting my homework done… I'm still taking notes and completing the tests, with higher marks then most the class."

"That's not my point! You're still skipping! I would have thought better of you… maybe it was a mistake to put you next to Heiseki… where is he by the way?"

"I don't know," Emi said looking at the empty seat next to her, "I would have thought he'd have done the same thing as I did, but…"

"He probably couldn't stand the thought of sitting through class, even if he wasn't doing it himself," Sakura returned to her desk, "Emi, I'll let it slide this time, but next time, you better not skip! UNDERSTAND?"

Emi flinched, "Yes, Sakura-sensei."

"Good, now, on to the lesson… geogr-"

"Sakura! We have a problem! Emergency evacuation now!" Sasuke said bursting into the room.

"What?"

"Let's go! Everyone out! Single file!"

The students started moving, except Emi. Sakura ran up to Sasuke, "What's going on Sasuke?"

"The Kumogakure are attacking! We need to go now!" He looked at Emi, "What are you waiting for, move!"

Emi undid the jutsu.

"What?"

"Sasuke, Emi and Heiseki both learned the shadow clone jutsu!"

"Oh great, who showed them that?" he shook his head, "Please don't tell me Naruto…"

"Naruto."

He looked out, "You go with the kids, I'll go find Emi and Heiseki!"

Sasuke began to run toward the window, but Sakura grabbed him, "Wait!"

"What is-?"

Sakura kissed him, "Be careful…"

He nodded, "I will."

Sakura watched him fly out the window before turning to go with the children. She saw Emi run up, "Emi?"

"I couldn't find Heiseki!" she said worried. Sakura noticed her hair was wet.

"Don't worry, Sasuke's looking for him, you'll be safe."

Emi followed closely behind her, "I don't want our countries to go to war…"

"I don't either, but it's beyond our control."

She heard a rapid movement behind her and she turned, "**_Jouro Senbon_**!"

_Jouro Senbon? That's a hidden Rain move! _Sakura thought and then realized that it wasn't her attacker who initiated it.

Zev was suddenly in front of her, "Heiseki's on his way, go!"

Sakura nodded and grabbed Emi, ignoring the groans of pain from the Hidden Cloud Shinobi that Zev attacked, every needle was a miss, except that Zev coated nearly all of his weapons with poison.

She ran toward the rest of the class. They were stopped. Oke looked back, "Sakura! The ways blocked off! We can't get through!"

Sakura pulled on a leather glove, "Out of the way!"

Everyone would have listened even if they weren't suddenly at war.

Sakura punched the stone blockade and it shattered. She smiled and said, "This way," leading them inside the mountain.

Everyone fell into line behind her.

Akihito grabbed Emi's hand, "Why'd you skip yesterday?"

"Now's not the time! We have to get going!"

"We are going," he stated, "I just want to know, is it because of Heiseki?"

"Yeah, he said I could meet the Hokage," she said smiling disarmingly, "I got to train with him!"

"Okay, what about today?"

"I was training with him again, but Heiseki wasn't there."

"Really? Where is he?"

"I don't know, his father said he was on his way."

A girl screamed from the back, "More cloud ninja!"

Sakura looked back but saw that there was no way she could reach the back in time, "quick! _Bunshin no Jutsu_!"

The girl made the hand signs, but panicked and failed miserably.

"Stupid-" the two ninja said before being brutally cut off.

Heiseki was like a stone, cold and unfeeling, "Keep going," he ordered.

"Hei…" Emi breathed out.

"I said keep going! We don't have time to stop!"

They turned when Sakura did. Sakura had seen death before, it wasn't a problem for her, but she didn't expect it not to be a problem for Heiseki, let alone when it happened with his own hands, which were now soaked in blood.

"_Chidorian_!" he shouted and struck the two walls and the ceiling. He brought the last Chidorian strike to his hand and he raised it, casting some light.

Gaichuu looked at him, "Why did you do that?"

"It buys us time," he stated, "I can blast that apart if we have to backtrack."

Gaichuu stepped back to fall into step behind him, "how could you kill those ninja?"

"It was them or us."

"But, you just killed them!"

"Like I said, it was them, or us."

Gaichuu shook his head, "I doubt I could kill someone…"

"You better get used to the idea," Heiseki stated, "We're at war now, and we're training to be the warriors for it."

Kanshin looked back, "Hey, Blood shot, clean your self up! You're creeping the rest of us out!"

The best he could was wiping his hands on the ground.

Emi waited for Heiseki, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he said as stone coldly as ever.

Emi thought for a moment and nodded. She picked up the pace and walked along side Akihito for a while. Sakura motioned for everyone to stop. She looked out the cave entrance, "it's clear, go, go, go!"

Everyone burst across the clearing over to the emergency caves that were used for hiding. When they got to the other side, Sakura used a genjutsu to cover the cave entrances.

Sakura did a head count. Everyone was accounted for. She breathed a sigh of relief. Sakura looked out and saw the Raikage outside. She covered her mouth, _what's he doing here! _She wondered. She looked back and motioned for complete silence. Akihito looked at Heiseki and smiled wickedly.

Sakura saw Akihito push Heiseki out. She grabbed him by the collar and threw him against a wall, "you fool!" she whispered, "You just doomed him!"

Akihito looked like he was upset, but really he was happy.

Heiseki didn't get upset when he was pushed out. The Raikage looked at Heiseki, "Looks like we have a straggler," he said laughing.

"Why are you attacking out village?" Heiseki asked, acting like a stone.

"Why?" he said laughing, "I don't have to respond to a little brat like you, but I feel like telling you anyways, because we wanted to."

"You're throwing your men's lives away just because you wanted to? We're stronger then we look."

Raikage laughed, "You can watch from hell, _Den fu no jutsu_!" He shouted making the hand signs and lighting began to trail from his fist. It lanced out toward Heiseki before the blow was going to land. Heiseki didn't even have a second to dodge.

Fortunately, _Relatzer no jutsu _didn't need a second.

"You see?" Heiseki said, "I could have killed you there," it was a bluff, he knew he couldn't of touched the Raikage, there would have to of been a second where his speed slowed or else he would have shattered every bone that was used in the strike, but his stone cold attitude seemed to support his claim.

The Raikage looked back, "Y-You!" a small cut appeared on his cheek. Heiseki realized he wasn't talking to him.

"You touch my grandson, and I'll torture you for hours in front of your own people!"

Naruto was stone cold.

The Raikage threw down a smoke pellet, "I'll be back… just wait… Naruto…"

Naruto looked at Heiseki, "What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be in the emergency shelters?"

"Someone bumped me and I fell out, I couldn't duck back in, he would have noticed me."

"I think he knew where you were anyways," he said, "otherwise why would he be out here?"

Heiseki felt a chakra that he didn't recognize near and he hit the ground, as did his grandpa. They looked over the edge, "I guess we'll find out."

"Where is he?" One ninja said, wearing a head band from the leaf.

"I don't know," the other said, wearing a head band from the sand, "He had to choose this country as the meeting ground and he doesn't even show!"

"Well, its better then attacking your country! Could you imagine trying to attack that country with Gaara and Sahlhi?"

Heiseki made a note to ask who Sahlhi was.

"Look," the leaf village ninja said, "just give me the information and then I'll find a way to get it to him."

The other bit his lip for a moment, "Okay, here," he said giving him the scroll.

The sand ninja left and Naruto and Heiseki jumped down in front of the leaf village ninja, "Stop!"

The leaf village smiled, "Hey Heiseki, hey Naruto."

"Don't hey me, traitor!"

"Aw," he said smiling still, "Leta wouldn't like you calling me that," he said as a _Henge jutsu _came undone.

"Dad?" Heiseki said looking at his father.

"Yep."

"Why'd you come here?" Naruto said a little untrusting, wondering how Zev fit into all this.

"Well, let me put it this way," Zev said his eye's narrowing, "The one who was supposed to come, won't be seeing tonight's sunset.

"Who's Sahlhi?" Heiseki asked after everyone trusted each other again.

Zev looked down, "A friend of mine, and the Kazekage's son. Over the dessert he's nearly invincible. He can manipulate sand."

"Okay," Heiseki said, "What should I do?"

"Go back into the emergency caves," Naruto said, "I think this might wind up being the shortest war ever," Naruto said beginning to turn.

"But what if someone's watching? I can't put the others at risk!"

Zev smiled, "We'll both use _Relatzer no jutsu_, you run into the cave, and I'll go back to the fighting," he said doing a _Henge no jutsu_, "ready?"

A second later Heiseki was in the cave and his father was fighting again. Heiseki looked at Sakura who picked him up and squeezed him, "I'm so glad you're all right!"

Heiseki was a stone, but she was still crushing him.

"Sakura, I think you're hurting him!" Gaichuu said.

Sakura dropped him and he collapsed as he gasped for air, "I wasn't in any danger, if push came to shove, I'd be half way to Suna by now."

"Really?" Gaichuu asked.

"Well, not quite, but you get my point."

Sakura motioned for silence, "We need to keep as silent as possible, and so can all of you do that?"

Akihito put his arm over Emi, but Emi pushed it off, "We can," she said and sat down next to Heiseki.

They could hear explosions going off, Heiseki wondered what was going on exactly when he felt a massive burst of red chakra. He leaned back and smiled, "It'll be over soon, the Hokage just unleashed some of the fox."

Sakura looked back, "You can feel that?"

He nodded.

A voice broke in, "Hey, WS! Want to go see the fighting?"

Sakura looked at Shinni, "When'd you get in here!"

"Just now," he said, "so how about it?"

Heiseki shook his head, "We should stay here."

Shinni folded his arms, "Oh, that's no fun."

Sakura turned him around and took a scolding face, "At least he has sense! You can't just go out there like it's a walk in the park!"

"It pretty much is," he said, "I've already been going around for the past hour or so."

"WHAT?"

"Besides, it's easier then sneaking away from you teachers, and I've even managed to put tacks on your chair when you weren't looking and get out before you noticed I was in there."

"That's different… wait… THAT WAS YOU?"

"Pink haired kunochi goes on the rampage again!"

Shinni sighed as Sakura began to rant. He looked at Heiseki. Heiseki was stone cold, it wasn't unusual. Still Shinni was bored. He wondered what it would be like the paint all the hokages' faces during war.

Then he realized that Heiseki was asleep and figured that was the best idea Heiseki had ever had. He walked over to the wall and Sakura shouted, "Hey! Aren't you listening?"

"Nope," he said closing his eyes.

"HEY!" but he was already falling asleep. He looked asleep, but he wasn't quite asleep yet. Sakura's droning voice keeping him awake just barely.

Emi put a hand on Heiseki's shoulder, but removed it when she realized he was asleep. She leaned back and tired to follow Heiseki's example, but worry and the explosions kept her from sleeping.

She curled up and wrapped her arms around her leg. She began to cry a little. Heiseki woke up and looked at her, "You okay?" He whispered.

Emi jerked up straight and wiped her eyes, "Yeah, I'm fine."

He looked at her in the eyes, "no you're not, you're crying."

She looked at him, "I'm wondering how you're not, I mean, your dad is out there!"

"Well, I know he'll be okay, he's strong. Strong enough to train with my grandpa every day, like some random ninja from the cloud village are going to be able to touch him."

Emi smiled weakly, "I wish I had that confidence in my parents."

Heiseki put his hand on her shoulder, "It's okay," he said smiling, "You can worry about them, it's natural to worry about people you care about."

Emi nodded and slowly leaned into Heiseki, and began to cry freely. Heiseki put his arm around her and let her lean on him. He didn't like to see her like this, but he knew inwardly, he was worried too.

He felt the red chakra die down, he guess his grandpa had stopped using the fox's chakra because it slowly lowered, not an instant stop like he had been killed. He looked at Sakura who was still staring out the cave.

Heiseki looked back at Emi who had cried herself to sleep, the days events taking a toll on her. He smiled a little and looked at Shinni. Shinni was awake, he wasn't fooling him, although he might be fooling the others, "Hey, Shinni, can Emi borrow your sweater?"

He sighed and unzipped it, "Yeah, here." Heiseki took it and spread it over Emi. He looked at Sakura. She was still staring out the cave entrance.

Gaichuu looked at Heiseki, "I think someone's coming."

Heiseki gulped, "he's hiding his chakra, which means-"

"Sasuke!"

He stepped into the cave, "They're running away, Naruto took care of most of them."

"I'm so glad you're safe," she said hugging him.

He held her for a moment, "I'm here to help protect the children. Shikamaru is helping with directing troop movement. They struck quickly, I think they were hoping to take us by surprise, but fortunately we had an ace up the sleeve."

"Naruto's good at doing that," Sakura said.

"I was talking about his son-in-law, but yeah, him too."

Heiseki looked up, "How is my dad?"

"A little hyped-up, I guess that spending about thirteen years without any fighting things get kind of pent up inside."

Sakura made Sasuke look at her and she kissed him, "I'm so glad your okay…"

Sasuke looked at her for a moment and then kissed her. Another student whispered laughing, "Don't they need to breath?"

Sakura just gave him a glare and continued to show Sasuke how glad she was that he was alright.

When the last of the explosions died down, Naruto himself came and gave the all clear. He looked at Sakura, "Yeah, and you give me and Hinata a hard time."

Sakura growled and Sasuke said, "Pink haired kunochi goes on the rampage again!" all the students laughed.

Heiseki slowly moved so that Emi was sitting on her own, and then picked her up. He walked out and Naruto looked at her, "She cried herself to sleep, she's exhausted."

Naruto looked at all the other students, "I suppose she's a lucky one. She got to sleep through the battle," he looked at Shinni, "Hey, how'd you get here?"

"I was bored and went looking for Warrior Stone," Shinni said shrugging.

"Bored? There was a battle going on!" Naruto shouted.

"I know, but it's easier then skipping class," Shinni said shrugging.

Naruto sighed, "You're going to be a great ninja someday," he took Emi out of Heiseki's arms, "Let's go," he said leading the way back to the village.

The village definitely had some damage to it, but what was going through Sakura's and Sasuke's minds wasn't the amount of damage, it was where the damage was located.

None of the damage was a real problem, it looked more wide spread then the attack should have been, and nothing vital was targeted. The same thing popped into heads, it was a diversion.

They looked at Naruto, he was leading them back into school. He put Emi down at her desk and grabbed Heiseki and sat him down, "Okay, school's back in session, you can keep going on you lesson," Naruto said calmly.

Sakura grabbed him, "Wait a second! What are you saying? We can't-"

Naruto held up the two scrolls, "Myself and Zev have gone over these already, they're troop numbers for the sand and leaf villages, as well as a list of weak structures and key targets. We're already making compensations; we've thwarted their attempt in one day. Go back to teaching them."

Sakura sighed, "Well, can Sasuke stay with?"

Naruto gave her a look, "Right, no making out in the middle of class," he said, "I don't care if each of the students pay you a hundred dollars each, understand?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

Naruto nodded and left.

Sakura turned, "HEISEKI!"

Naruto looked back in, "What?"

"He already skipped!"

"Wow, I could have learned a thing or two from him."

"YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE CONDONEING THIS!"

Naruto looked at Sasuke, "Hey, Sasuke, want to go get a drink at the bar?"

"All right, point made."

Naruto smiled and left. He called out for Kakashi, "Kakashi, go find my grandson, please."

"He's gone again? He's worse then you were."

"I could have learned a thing or two from him."

"I feel sorry for who ever winds up teaching him…"

Naruto smiled as Kakashi left, "Exams are coming up soon," he laughed and went into his office. He filled out the paper work to order the head bands. Soon reports came flooding in about the battle. Naruto had half a mind to revert back to his childhood days and go pull some massive pranks in the hidden cloud village. It would be a challenge, but it would be pretty fun.

He sighed. He was beginning to get a headache from all the paper work. He finished half of the reports and all the preparations for the graduation exams. He leaned back and heard the door creak open.

His cure for his headache came in.

Hinata was wearing a blue kimono with snow flakes decorating the entire dress. She brought in tea for Naruto and herself. She poured him a glass of tea, "Hard to believe that just a few hours ago, we were fighting for our lives."

"I know what you mean," he said drinking the entire contents of the glass in two swigs. He looked up at her and smiled, "I don't think you've ever been more beautiful."

Hinata smiled and kissed him, "You say that every time I visit you in the office."

"Well," he said kissing her again, "You are."

His put his hand on her arm and continued to kiss her. He slowly brought his arm up until it was over her back. Hinata broke away for a moment, "Think we want another son?"

"How about a daughter?" He said kissing her again.

There was a knock at the door and they both shot up. Hinata straightened out her kimono and Naruto got his body back under control, "come in," he said, making sure to sound a little annoyed.

"Sorry to bother you, but," Kakashi said smiling, although you couldn't really tell, "I found Heiseki, but I think it'd be awful to interrupt him."

"What's he doing?"

"Training his mind and spirit."

"What?"

"He's training his body to make chakra faster. He's not doing so bad. I could feel his chakra even without looking for it."

"Okay," Naruto said, "Let him be."

Kakashi bowed out and closed the door.

Hinata got up and locked it. She sat down in Naruto's lap, "Now where were we?"

"I remember."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 

Heiseki sat on a roof top cross legged with his hands in the tori hand sign, or also known as the sign of the bird. He sent out a blast of chakra and then made his body regenerate it, forcing his body to work harder. A bead of sweat fell down the side of his head and he sent out another burst of chakra. He began sweating profusely. He forced his body to work harder.

He felt a presence enter his field of concentration. He jumped up and drew a kunai. He stopped as he realized it was his dad.

"Working hard?"

"Yeah," Heiseki said, "I have to, to be stronger."

Zev sat down, "You know, graduation exams are coming up soon."

"They are?"

"Yep, this Friday."

"Any hints on how to get past it?"

"Shadow clone jutsu," Zev said pointing at Heiseki, "That's how your mother passed."

"Okay," Heiseki said, "Hold on a second," he undid the shadow clone jutsu and nearly collapsed. Zev caught him and sat him down and pulled out a bottle of water.

"Kakashi told me you were training; I figured you'd be nearly killing yourself."

"Not that bad," Heiseki said guzzling the water, "But close enough.

Zev nodded, "So, working on your spiritual energy?"

Heiseki nodded.

Zev looked at him, "Chakra control is just as important as increasing your stamina."

"Yeah, but I have that down pretty good."

Zev bit his lip for a moment, "well, you could still use some work," Heiseki looked up at him, "I can show you another chakra control exercise, but you'll have to do me a favor."

"What?" he said excitedly.

"Actually, call it a promise."

"What?" he said very apathetically.

"Only have you shadow clone practice this while you're in school, and you have to stay after school and get your grades up. Sakura won't even let you try to attempt the exam unless your grades are Cs or higher."

"Fine…"

"Follow me," Zev led him to the closest body of water, which was the hot springs.

Zev smiled and stopped over the water, he made the hand sign o-hitsuji, "First you bring the chakra to your feet, then you emit a steady amount adjusted to your weight, and," he stepped out on water, "you're walking on water."

Heiseki jumped at the chance, "Chakra to feet, constant amount and," like a rock, he sank.

"The water's sixty degrees centigrade, so be careful."

"Man that's hot!" Heiseki said, "I got to get this!"

Zev grabbed his shoulder, "You got to keep your promise."

"Fine, _Kage Bushin no jutsu_!"

"Okay, now while you practice you go learn," Zev said keeping a hand on Heiseki's shoulder. Zev made a shadow clone to keep an eye on Heiseki's clone. Heiseki grumbling went back while shaking his body to get the water off, but his father didn't notice the substitution he did with himself and his clone.

When they got back to the school, he was only a little drier. Zev opened the door and Heiseki walked in. Sakura looked at Heiseki, "You little brat!" She shouted and stomped over to him, "You just have to make life…" she trailed off, "Why are you soaking wet?"

"I showed him the water walking exercise since he promised that he would have a shadow clone practice while he studied here. He also has to stay after school and get his grades up so he can participate in the graduation exams that are this Friday."

"Really? So I own him until Friday?"

"Yep, until Friday."

"Oh, this is going to be so sweet…"

Heiseki waived his hand in front of his face, "Can you keep a good distance back? With that much perfume, it's a wonder no one else has passed out."

Sakura pointed to his seat next to Emi, "Go sit down, hot-shot or I'll pound you into a bloody pulp."

"Can she do that?"

"If it counts as extra credit, yes," Zev said smiling.

"Traitor," Heiseki said looking at him.

Zev waived over his shoulder as he walked out. He was going to go make sure Heiseki's clone stayed focused. Which wouldn't be too hard, but it would give him something to do for a while.

Heiseki sat down next to Emi. She looked at him, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just a little wet," he said focusing his chakra and making it rove over his body and slowly expanding it. A trick he had learned during a seven day rain storm three years ago, he had to make it look like he was inside all day when in fact he had been running in the rain.

Emi looked at him, "You're practically a ninja already."

"That's how it is when all your family members are famous ninja," a voice broke in. They both looked at Youryu, "Want to sneak out?"

Emi shook her head, "I can't I have to study."

"You can do shadow clones can't you? Why don't you just make one-" he ducked as Sakura's first minute was up, "and skip yourself."

Emi shook her head, "I can't, I can only make one."

Youryu was confused for a moment, "You're a shadow clone?" he said a smile slowly crossing his face.

"Yeah," she said, "I'm actually at the hot-springs right now."

Heiseki's clone hoped that his real self didn't look in there.

"Heiseki, what about you?"

"I made a promise," He said shaking his head, "to stay."

"Who are you and what have you done with Heiseki!" Youryu shouted.

Heiseki flinched, wrote a note quick as Youryu ducked and hid. He slid the paper to him, marked on it was, "to myself, my real self, at the hot-springs," Youryu left and ran off.

Sakura waived a fist at Youryu, "Wait until your father finds out, Youryu!" She walked back in the room, "Wow, Heiseki, I'm surprised. If I had known your word was that binding to you I would have made you promise to show up in at least half your classes."

Heiseki just looked at Emi and winked. She smiled and began taking notes again.

Elsewhere, Emi sighed and relaxed in the soothing waters. A woman walked over to her, "Shouldn't you-"

Emi pointed at a sign, "I'm in school as a shadow clone, back off," it read.

The woman turned and got into the water. Emi took a brush and began to brush her hair. She hadn't pampered herself in a long time. The last time was before she had started dating Akihito. She groaned and set the brush down. That was three years ago. Akihito spent way too much time focused on himself, and got jealous every time she went on her own.

She sank lower in the water thinking about what had happened earlier today, she saw Akihito push Heiseki out of the cave and nearly killed him. She wasn't going to put up with him any longer.

She rubbed her feet and then grabbed a pumice rock and began to scrub, she was going to break up with Akihito, today. She was furious at him for what he did to Warrior stone.

She let go of the rock as she realized that she thought of Heiseki as the Warrior Stone. She smiled and grabbed the rock again. But then shouting from outside caught her attention.

_Was that Youryu? _She wondered and got up out of the water as she grabbed a towel and dried her hair a little. She found a crack in the walls and looked out. She saw Heiseki outside, he wasn't wearing his shirt and was soaking wet. Youryu got out of the water and continued shouting.

"It's hot isn't it?"

"You could have warned me that-" he pointed a finger at the wall, "Hey! Akihito! What are you doing?"

She heard Akihito's voice, "Oh, go have your fun, I'm looking for someone."

Emi turned so that she was flat against a more solid part against the wall, _That perv! He's peaking! _She thought.

"Are you looking for Emi?" Heiseki asked.

"Of course!"

Emi forgot about breaking up with him, she was going to strangle him instead and leave his body hanging out there for any would be peeping tom to take note of.

"Seriously cut that out!" Youryu said to Akihito.

"Oh, come on, like you haven't?"

"Exactly," Heiseki said.

"Yeah right!" Akihito said, "Who believes you?" Akihito said at the crack that Emi was looking through a moment ago.

"My father, who has been watching me the whole time, and is right behind you right now."

Emi heard thunder and decided to go thank Zev and Heiseki personally. She got dressed and sprayed a perfume on herself that smelled of lotus and put a flower in hair, as was her custom leaving the bath house, and then went out to the back. Heiseki looked at his dad, "Maybe he really can't swim."

"Maybe," Zev's father said coldly.

Emi walked up, the guys parting for her. She picked up a stone and threw it at Akihito, "You perv!" She shouted at him. It hit him in the head and he started bleeding. She looked at Heiseki, "I'm glad to know you weren't peaking in on me."

Heiseki was still stone cold, "Maybe we should tell him to just stand up."

Emi shook her head, "No, he deserves this."

Heiseki nodded and did the trick to drying himself off, "Well, I'm finished here, should we go?"

Zev grabbed his son, "How's the clone doing?"

Heiseki groaned, "You knew?"

"Yeah, I'm not as stupid as I look."

Emi looked Zev up and down and tired to figure where he got off saying that line.

Zev let go of Heiseki, "As long as that clone doesn't come undone until Friday, I'm okay."

Heiseki smiled and thanked him. He looked down at Akihito who managed to grab the edge. Emi stepped on his hand and Akihito panicked again, "I don't want to see your face again!" she said and turned abruptly.

Youryu looked at Emi and then at Heiseki, "Can I ask?" he said smiling.

Zev looked at Heiseki, Heiseki shook his head, "I don't think it'd be a good idea, I mean, apparently she just broke up with Akihito," he turned and went off, the same way Emi did.

Youryu was about to go after but Zev grabbed his collar, "I believe your Father would like to know where you are."

"Aw… man…"

-S-T-O-N-E-W-A-R-R-I-O-R-

Emi slowed when she realized Heiseki was following. She smiled at him as he walked up to her, "Hey," she said.

He smiled, "Hey yourself, that was a pretty brutal way to break up with someone."

"Well, he was the perv."

"That's true."

"Also, I couldn't let what he did when we were at the cave today slide," she sighed and looked around, "Almost hard to believe that a few days few moments ago, the entire village was under attack."

"It's not so hard for me," Heiseki said pointing, "Look."

She looked at a pile of broken boards, "What?"

"That was my favorite ramen stand, Ichiraku!"

Emi laughed at how he managed to sound upset, but still stone cold. She looked over, "Maybe we could order a bowl and go somewhere else to eat, maybe the park."

Heiseki looked at her and shrugged, "Sure, why not?"

"It'd be a fun first date."

That stopped Heiseki, "Did I just hear you right?"

Emi smiled at him, "Well, do you think it'd be a good idea for a date?"

"Is that a way of asking if this would be a date or not?"

Emi shrugged and smiled.

"I'd have to say, I would love it."

Emi walked over and looked amongst the wreckage. She looked around, "Hello?"

Ayame stood up after picking up the menu, she brushed the dirt off, "We can't serve any-" she looked at Heiseki, "Oh, for you Heiseki, yeah, I could whip something up, want something?"

"Two bowls of Miso Ramen, we'll go eat it in the park if you don't mind, since you kind of need to pick up here."

"Tell you what, you come back and help me rebuild this, I'll give it to you on the house."

"Deal," Emi said looking at Heiseki who nodded in agreement.

"It'll be done in a second!"

Emi thought for a moment and looked at Heiseki, "how can she cook with the place destroyed like that?"

"I have no idea," Heiseki said shaking his head.

A few moments later, Emi and Heiseki were sitting in the park eating their ramen and drinking two bottles of Coke that Ayame had thrown into their little deal. Emi was surprised at the speed at which Heiseki ate. He set down his bowl and smiled at her, "That was good."

"I've barely started!" Emi said laughing. She continued to eat for a while and then asked, "Heiseki, do you spend a lot of time with your parents?"

Heiseki nodded, "Yeah, my father's a great ninja, even though he can't really fight anymore. And my mom," he rubbed his stomach, "She's the best cook in this entire village!"

Emi laughed, "Can you cook?"

Heiseki shook his head, "Yeah, well… a little… some… a bit."

"Creditability, zero," Emi commented.

"Yeah, not at all," Heiseki admitted, "I spend more time training then I do anything else."

"You really want to be a ninja, huh?"

He nodded, "Yeah, I've already failed the graduation test four times."

"Are you serious? No wonder why you skip school all the time."

"No," he said laughing, "I skipped my first day of school."

Emi laughed, "Wow," she said shaking her head, "You must have a lot of fun skipping school everyday. I couldn't handle it."

"Because of you keeping your grades up?" Emi nodded, "Yeah, it would be pretty difficult to get over a hundred percent in everything while skipping."

Emi laughed, "Yeah."

He looked at her, "Something bothering you?"

"No," she said beginning to blush, "It's just that… for quite sometime I've wanted to do this, Akihito's really jealous and controlling. I never really liked him."

"Then why did you wait so long to break up?"

"Well, to be really honest," she said putting a hand on her arm, "I was scared."

Heiseki put an arm around her, "You don't have to be, not when I'm around."

Emi smiled, "Thanks," she finished the last of her ramen, "I suppose it's time to go help Ayame, huh?"

Heiseki stood up, "Yeah, we'll be done in an hour though."

"How do you know that?"

"Well, I don't doubt for a minute that my grandpa will be down here in a heart beat to help out, but even if he doesn't, we got two of me."

Emi was confused, but when they got back to Ichiraku she saw what he had meant.

With the two of him, himself and another clone, they managed to get it done within an hour. Ayame was impressed, as was Emi.

Ayame smiled, "Alright, we're open for business again."

Emi looked at Heiseki, "I bet you're hungry again."

Heiseki nodded, "Yes I am, I could go for another bowl of Ramen."

"Or if genetics has anything to say, four or five more," Ayame said the smell from her cooking beginning to tantalize Heiseki's senses.

Heiseki looked at Emi, "If you're still hungry, I can get something to eat as well."

Emi smiled, "Well, I'm on a diet anyways-" her stomach growling cut off anything else.

Ayame put out two bowls of miso ramen, "Here, half price for getting the job done so quickly."

That settled it.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 

That Friday, Heiseki stood in front of Sakura. The head bands laid out in front of her in perfect rows. Today was a great day.

He smiled as did she, "After today, I'll be out of your hair for good!"

"Show me your _Bushin no jutsu_," Sakura said praying that he would manage, if not, she would have one more year with him.

"Forget that!" he said making the hand signs for _Kage bushin no jutsu_, "I'm doing… _Kage bushin no jutsu_!"

Sakura dropped her pencil as he vanished. Heiseki walked into the room, "Sorry, had to see your face… okay… _Kage bushin no jutsu_!"

Sakura chucked the head band at Heiseki, "_Baka!_ Don't do that again!"

Heiseki picked up the head band and rubbed his forehead, "I thought it was funny…"

He walked out as he put it around his forehead. Emi jumped on him from behind, "So you got it! You're a ninja now!"

He smiled, "yeah," he started as she tied it for him since he was having trouble.

"I don't like wearing this thing around my forehead," she stated as she touched it, she wore it around her neck.

He smiled, "Come on, let's go back to the others, I bet my grandpa is going to come see if I graduated."

She smiled and walked close behind him. He entered the class room for what he hoped to be the last time. He found Youryu and Shinni waiting, "Oh, so you got to escape!" Youryu said.

"What are you-" he started and then noticed, they didn't have headbands, "Oh, I see…"

"It's okay," Shinni said, "I can still pull pranks on Sakura!"

Youryu wiped his nose with his thumb, "I'm going to get a whole lot more training from my dad, but I'll see you around though!"

"Yeah!" Heiseki said.

"Looks like the drop out passed," an annoyed voice broke in. Heiseki glared at Oke, "Well, just goes to show you anyone can be a ninja now days."

Kanshin walked up holding hands with Akihito, "Yeah, still, only the best of the best can be real ninjas."

Heiseki looked at Emi, "I'm shutting him up before he speaks again," Akihito stepped back as Heiseki shouted, "_Chidorian_!" a clap of thunder and Akihito went flying.

Gaichuu moved as if he was going to catch him, but decided better of it. Akihito crashed through the window and Kanshin and Oke ran out to go help him lick his wounds, as Gaichuu walked forward, "So, you come into school about a week before graduations and when it comes around, you have a girl friend, and nearly all As and you manage to graduate. Good job!"

"Bs actually. You go through the exam yet?"

"I am now," he said as a copy of him came in.

"What on earth?" she said as the copy handed him his headband and he wrapped it around his waist like a belt.

"I'm an Aburame," he said as the copy melted into a pile of bugs and they wrapped themselves along his arms and dug back into his body, "I have another clone jutsu, but I can do the regular jutsu all the same, and Sakura-sensei knows that."

Emi was slightly disgusted, "Okay…" she said backing away, "doesn't that… I don't know… hurt?"

"Nope," he said shaking his head, a bug crawled out of his shirt, "See?" he said as it crawled along his forearm and dug into his skin.

"I wish I didn't!"

He laughed, "Its okay, I suppose it's a little weird."

Heiseki laughed too, "Yeah, but then again, I guess it's no weirder having a mutt on your head all the time."

"Or red eyes, at least most Hyuugas' are white," Youryu commented.

Emi turned Heiseki and stared at his eyes for a moment, "I think I like these ones the best."

The others turned away suddenly aware of how awkward things were for them. Shinni jumped behind Emi and held out his pinky and mouthed, "Kiss her!"

Gaichuu pulled him back, "Quiet you!" he ordered.

Shinni looked at him, "I was quiet." Gaichuu looked at him sighed and turned him around, "Whoo!" Shinni said pumping the air with his fist.

Heiseki broke away to pound him. He returned to Emi, "Sorry about that."

"It's okay," she said smiling.

"No I was talking about pounding Shinni."

"Oh that… hadn't even paid attention."

-S-T-O-N-E-W-A-R-R-I-O-R-

The next day, Naruto was in front of the class, "Congratulations Graduates!" he started, "Nothing can describe how happy I am to see so many of you are graduating-"

"Not as much as I am," Sakura commented fiddling with the sheet that had all the names of who was going to be with who on whose squad.

"Moving on," Naruto said after the laughter had died down and all the glances at Heiseki re-centered, "Now, many of you know what transpired a little less then a week ago. So, as a leader, I must say and allow you to choose," he sighed, "If you become ninja now, chances are you'll get caught up in this war, this war we don't even know who all our enemies are. You may die sooner then you'd think, so I'm asking you now," he sighed again, "if you want, you may leave your head band on the desk in front of you and leave, and go on with your lives, not as ninja, but as people of our village."

He smiled when no one moved, and it grew bigger each passing minute. He looked at Sakura, "Well, looks like you get to do the rest."

Sakura stood up and began reading off the list of names, "… Akihito, Kanshin, Saisan, you're on team Four, with Kakashi."

Heiseki began to think, he said finally, "Isn't Kakashi the one who taught Naruto?"

"He is, but he's still really strong, I wouldn't even think about messing with him," Gaichuu said in front of Heiseki.

Emi smiled, "He also died, but your father resurrected him, he also taught Sakura for a while."

"Hey!" Sakura shouted, "Emi! Heiseki! The least you could do is listen when I'm talking about you!"

"R-r-right, Sakura-sensei!"

Everyone said for what appeared to be the last time they could say it as a class, "Pink haired kunochi goes on the rampage again!"

"Okay, you two along with Gaichuu, are on team seven," she paused for a moment realizing that was her team designation way back when she Naruto and Sasuke where just that, not known as the new Sanin, or the Hokage, the medic and the returned-traitor, "With, Emiko."

Emiko waived her hand, "Come on, I bet your just dying to get out of here."

Heiseki ran while the others walked out slowly. Given a chance, he would have made his own door.

Emiko lead them to black stone monument, "Well, now that we're here, why don't we try and get to know each other," she said smiling, but not turning away as she ran her fingers across a name.

Everyone looked at each other, "how do we do that?"

"Oh," Emiko said turning, "Sorry, why don't you tell me your likes and dislikes, and your motivation for being a ninja."

Emi started, "Well, I like, Heiseki, a good soak at the hot springs, and the smell of rain," she continued, "I don't like, perverts, arrogant people, and people who can't learn a lesson no matter how many times they have to learn it."

"You could just say Akihito," Gaichuu commented as she thought about her motivation for being a ninja.

She laughed, "Yes, but that would be too easy."

"What about your motivation for being a ninja?"

"Um… well, I'd have to say that I want to be a great kunochi, like Tsunade, or Tenten!"

Emiko smiled, "You could ask for extra training from Sakura, she trained under Tsunade."

"I knew that," Emi said smiling, "but if you ask me, I spent to much time with her already, it's so good not to have to worry about my grades anymore."

Emiko smiled, "Okay, Heiseki, why don't you go next?"

"Well, I like, Emi," he smiled at her as she looked over her shoulder, "Ramen, my friends, my parents, and my grandparents. I don't like super hot sunny days, I like the rain better, I also hate being called blood-shot, and I really, really, _really_ hate… school."

"Why do you want to be a ninja?"

"I want to be the second best hokage!"

"Second?" Emiko asked.

"Well, keeping it realistic, no one can beat my Grandpa."

Emiko laughed, "Okay, what about you Gaichuu?"

"Well, I like, bugs, music, and the smell of good cooking," he looked at the others as if to gauge their reactions, "I don't like, pesticides, cucumbers, and bad cooking."

"Well I'm never cooking," Heiseki said.

"The reason I want to a ninja is, well, I can't imagine my self doing anything else."

Emiko nodded, "Okay, I'll tell you what I like and don't like," she sat down on the monument, "I like the smell of rain, my friends, and the smell of good cooking, I don't like and absolutely despise, back-biting, name calling, and any, _any_ unkind remarks to people who are your friends. We are all friends here, so I better not see any of that!"

The others gulped and made sure never to insult one of the others.

"I also like having time to think, so I if I randomly vanish, don't come looking for me, I'm probably thinking, if I don't show back up in an hour, then call a search party."

The others nodded. Then Emiko stood up, "We'll have our first mission tomorrow, meet back here, you probably won't need your ninja gear."

Heiseki shrugged, "I bring it anyways."

They looked at him, "Um… where?"

Heiseki pulled a kunai out of his boot, he unclipped a shuriken from his belt and then grabbed his arm, "My three most used tools."

"Out of curiously, do you poison your weapons?"

Heiseki shook his head, "No, too big of a risk cutting my self with them, I'm a better aim then my father anyways."

Emi pointed at a knot in a tree about fifty feet away, "can you hit that?"

"No."

"What about that?" she said pointing at a waste basket about forty feet away with a big red target on it with a man holding up a cup that was in the bulls eye.

"No."

"What about that?" she said pointing at a drooping flower that was obviously dying.

He threw the kunai and clipped the flower off the stem.

Emi smiled and asked for a kunai, a senbon, and a shuriken.

Heiseki pulled out another Kunai and gave her it with a shuriken from his belt. Emiko handed her a senbon.

Emi hit the knot in the tree with the senbon, the target on the waste basket with the shuriken, and hit the flower with the kunai. She got up and retrieved all the weapons.

"You just got showed up."

Emiko glared at Gaichuu, "What'd I say?"

Gaichuu jumped back, "Sorry!"

Heiseki waived it off, "Its okay, I really did. Emi is amazing like that."

Emi smiled and clipped the shuriken back on his belt, and handed him the kunai.

Emiko relaxed, "Okay, well, I'll see you tomorrow."

Emi got up, "You want to go somewhere Heiseki?"

Heiseki jumped up, but then slowed, "Sorry, I can't, I promised I'd go home and talk to my dad about who was on my team and who my team leader was."

"Can I make you promise that you'll go out with me when we get another chance?"

"I promise."

Heiseki ran off and Gaichuu stood up, "I should get home too, if I'm lucky, my brother will be there."

"You have a brother?"

"Yep, ANBU black ops, like Sasuke."

"That's cool," Emi said.

"Yeah, he was going to teach me some techniques that he learned recently, but we didn't get a chance to so we're trying to make some time."

"All right, I'll be going then," Emi said. She smiled as she realized she had hours of free time that she could devote to what ever she wanted. She decided on the hot springs, twice in a week, she was in a great mood.

Emi let her self relax while she was in the water and she sighed. The water felt so good. She felt someone disturb the water and she opened her eyes to see Emiko standing there a towel in hand. Emiko smiled and Emi sat up, making room for her new teacher.

Emiko sat down, not quite fully in the water. She cupped her hand and poured the water on her body, "it feels so good doesn't it?"

Emi sighed, "Yes it does," she said sinking into the water up to her ears, "I love this."

Emiko poured more water on her body, "Me too, there's just the problem of-"

"Hey you!" A voice shouted, "What are you doing?"

Every girl reached for a towel.

"Dang it! Get back here!" the same voice from before shouted.

"That was probably Akihito," a voice broke in as she got in the water, "I can't believe you broke up with him, Emi."

"Well, you saw what he did," Emi said sitting up a little.

Kanshin scrubbed her body, "Well, I'd find a way to over look it."

"Are you crazy? Heiseki could have died!" Emi said sitting up out of the water. She sat back down, "Sorry, I shouldn't be getting worked up like that while I'm trying to relax."

"Your loss, my gain," Kanshin said smiling.

"Yeah, enjoy your beater of a boyfriend."

"Ah, see, I like that kind of roughness," Kanshin said while showing off a bruise on her arm. She smiled, "just like how he likes biting."

Emiko began washing her hair, "I may be coming in half way here, but that doesn't sound like a healthy relationship," she continued after she raised her head out of the water, "Emi's relationship with Heiseki is much better from what I know."

"You mean blood-shot?"

Emi glared at Kanshin as she began brushing her hair, "He hates it when people call him that."

"That's our knick-name for him," Kanshin said as she began to scrub at her legs, "he might as well get used to it."

"His friends call him Warrior stone, or WS," Emi said glaring at her as well.

Kanshin flicked her hair over her shoulder, "Well, that's just giving him too much credit, I bet as soon as he got out of sight of everyone else, he breaks down."

Emi shook her head, "he's not like that. He really is like a rock, strong and steady."

Kanshin looked at her, "What ever," she got up out of the water and grabbed her towel, "I thought you were at least smart, he's a freak."

"He's unique," Emiko said setting down the brush, "I would have thought you would be able to tell the difference."

Kanshin left the bathing house in a huff. Emi looked at Emiko, "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," she said as she poured water over her arms again, "he's my student too, I'd do the same if she was insulting you."

"Thanks."

She stood and got out of the water, "I should go pick out our mission, I just wanted to make some time for this before I did so."

Emi nodded, "Okay, make it an easy one. It will be our first day as a mission and I don't want to fail."

"Of course," Emiko said smiling and wrapping the towel around her, "I'll see you tomorrow, and don't let anything Kanshin said bother you, Heiseki's a nice guy I think so far."

Emi smiled and began to relax again. She sank into the water until her ears were under the water. She sighed contentedly. She felt someone touch her shoulder; she opened her eyes and looked up at an older woman, "its closing time, young miss."

Emi jumped out of the water, she had fallen asleep. She sprayed a perfume on her body and put a flower in hair as she hurriedly got dressed again. She ran out the door and tripped on the steps.

She closed her eyes and braced for the fall but someone caught her, "You're wearing a flower again, but last time it was white, not red."

Emi looked up at Heiseki, "Oh, Heiseki!"

"I heard from my dad that Emiko saw you last at the hot spring, when no one else did, I decided to come looking."

"Are my parents worried?"

"I haven't met your parents," he said, "I wouldn't have known to ask if I had seen them."

"Oh, okay, well, if they aren't looking then I'm okay."

He held her hand and led her down the steps, "okay, I have what's little of the day left off. Where do you want to go?"

Emi smiled, "Where ever you want to go."

Heiseki smiled, "I have an idea…"

A few moments later Emi shook her head, "I can't believe I let you talk me into this," she said as she slid into Heiseki's arms.

He helped her sit down in the eye of the Fourth hokage, "I'll keep you safe, don't worry."

"Don't tell me not to worry," she said, "That makes me worry more."

He shook his head, "it's nice up here isn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Wait a moment…"

They waited and listened. It was silent, the wind blew softly, playing with Emi's hair. She looked up at the sky, the stars were shinning brightly, bright white dots that sparkled. She looked down at the village, the lights were bright and harsh compared to the natural lights in the sky, but beautiful.

She looked at him, "it's beautiful."

A burst of wind blew Emi's flower out of her hair. Heiseki snatched it up and replaced it, "You smell nice," he commented.

Emi leaned into him, "Thanks," she said. She made a mental note to try a different perfume next time and see if he would comment on how it was different from this one, like he did with the flower.

He looked back out at the village, "I come up here a lot to think, I think my mom knows, once I found a lunch from her with my name on it."

"What do you think about?" Emi asked.

"Well, before, it used to be about, what would I do in this situation, what would I do in that, and stuff like, why does so-an-so do that or say that while someone else says or does something completely different."

"Really?"

"Yeah, most of the time I don't come up with any answers, but there's one question that I would really like to figure out the answer to."

"What's that?"

"Why does my dad still train everyday, even though he's only at half of what his strength should be? He can't get stronger, and he can't work for anything, so why does he still train?"

"Why don't you ask him?"

"I did, he said that I will know when it comes time for me to do the same."

"What did he mean by that?"

"I don't know," he laughed, "I guess that just means it's not time for me to do the same."

Emi sighed and leaned on Heiseki. She put hand in his and closed her eyes, "I'm so glad you had to come to school that day."

Heiseki smiled, "You have no idea how glad I was when she put next to you."

Emi laughed, "To be honest, I felt the same way."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I never liked Akihito, but when he asked me out, my friends kind of pressured me into saying yes. And then I was trapped. But when you came along, you beat him through a wall, and just crushed him in front of everyone," she giggled, "You have no idea how satisfying it was to see him like that from my perspective."

Heiseki shrugged, "I might have a starting point."

Emi laughed, "I guess," she shook her head, "Then you came in twice in a row, and crushed him again. Then we skipped school and went to see your grandpa and we got to train with him! That may not be a big deal to you, but it is to me! Then the next day I got to skip school with a shadow clone in my place, I got time to myself, rather then having to spend it all with Akihito… It's almost weird, having time to do things myself"

Heiseki put his other hand on Emi's, "Well," he said, "You're not going to have to worry about that with me."

Emi smiled, "Yeah."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 

Emiko was pretty cherry for how early she had gotten up. She was waiting by the stone monument. She smiled as she saw the others arriving. She waived for them to hurry up, "Come on! Don't you want to get started on a mission?"

Heiseki looked at Gaichuu, "I hope it's a tough one."

"Me too," Gaichuu said bursting into a run.

Heiseki gave Gaichuu five seconds, and then he out ran him. Emi walked a bit more slowly, she had asked Emiko to pick an easy mission without thinking of what Heiseki and Gaichuu wanted.

Emiko smiled, "It's a fairly easy mission, but one we really need to do."

Heiseki and Gaichuu sighed, "Well, what is it?"

"We're going to be patching up the woman's bath at the hot-springs. Someone has finally had enough with peeping toms and paid for some help patching it up."

Heiseki nodded and turned, "Well, let's go."

Gaichuu laughed, "I feel like I'm betraying someone, but let's do it."

Emi looked at Emiko and smiled, "Thanks for getting an easy job."

"Don't thank me yet," Emiko said smiling. Emi was about to ask but Emiko started walking towards Gaichuu and Heiseki. Emi sighed and walked behind her.

When they got to the hot springs, Emiko held out three buckets of a steaming black liquid, "We're putting this over the boards, it's pitch that we're going to put over the boards on both sides, be careful it's really hot, afterwards we're going to put up another set of boards on the outside and on the inside."

Heiseki took a bucket and instantly set about the task on the inside. Gaichuu took his and said, "Leaving nothing up to chance?"

Emiko shook her head, "Not at all."

Gaichuu went on the outside and began to spread the pitch on the outside. Emi took her bucket and started working on the inside with Heiseki. The task was long and boring, but Gaichuu and Heiseki didn't complain at all. So she kept quiet herself, she didn't want to be the only one to complain.

The hot pitch made her sweat a lot. Se constantly had to wipe her forehead because of the heat, Heiseki glanced over at her every time she did, and she started doing it less and less frequently. Sweat dripped into her eye and she brought up her hand to wipe her brow again. Heiseki grunted and she looked at him, he had his arm in front of her. She looked down ad saw that she had dripped the pitch on him.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!"

"Just be a little more careful, you almost got yourself," he said as he wiped off the pitch on the ground, leaving a burn mark on his hand. He was like a stone and didn't let the pain bother him.

Emiko came over, "that was a nice thing you did for her," she said as a bright green light emanated from her finger tips and she put them over the burn mark. When she brought them away, the burn was gone, "Just be more careful Emi," Emiko said getting up to go help Gaichuu on his side.

When they had finished with the pitch, Emiko brought out the boards, "Okay, now we got to hurry up and place all these boards into place while the pitch cools, if we can get them in place quick enough, the pitch will seal them together."

Heiseki made the hand signs, "_Kage bushin no jutsu_!" he shouted as he created four shadow clones.

Emi got the idea, "_Kage bushin no jutsu_!" she said as she followed his lead, creating a single shadow clone.

Gaichuu shrugged as plenty of bugs came out from him and then created two clones, "I guess this will make it go faster."

Emiko simply stared as they set about the task, finishing it in only a fraction of the time they thought it would have took. When all their clones disappeared Emi looked at Heiseki, "how can you make three clones?"

"I've been training," he said panting a little from the heat, "increasing the chakra I can make and my stamina."

"Well," Emi said smiling, "Perhaps you can show me how to train later."

"Well," Gaichuu said interrupting, "I think right now we all need a bath."

Emi smiled and pushed Heiseki, "That's easy."

Heiseki flipped back and sprung off his hand to land on his feet, on the water, "Yeah, but I don't feel like taking one right now. He walked forward and grabbed Emi's arm, "Although, would you like one?" Emi began to back away but he pulled her off the solid ground and into the water.

Emi pouted for a moment and then grabbed Heiseki's leg and pulled it under, making all his weight have to be supported by one leg and he couldn't adjust quickly enough. Emi laughed as he stood up out of the water and shook himself off, "Man, that's hot…"

"It is called a _hot_-spring," Emiko stated, "but enough of that, now that we're finished, we are going to spend the rest of the day training."

Emi stopped splashing Heiseki and looked at her, "Training?"

"I was thinking of going over chakra control, but Heiseki seems to have that down. What about you two?"

"Nothing," Gaichuu admitted.

"Okay then," Emiko said leading the way away from the hot-springs, "We can go practice chakra control."

"What about me?" Heiseki asked, "Should I continue practicing chakra control, or can I train my body to produce chakra more efficiently."

"You really are a lot like your father, you know that?" Emiko asked turning, "You can do what ever you want," she said continuing again, "As long as it's training."

Heiseki nodded and continued to follow her. She led them to a spot in the forest and began the whole explanation of what the exercise was, "Focus your chakra into your feet, then use the power to climb the tree," she began walking up the tree, "This will help you learn how to-" she stopped when she realized she was being ignored, "You could pay attention you know."

Gaichuu said without opening his eyes, "Heiseki taught the class the usefulness of this training exercise already, we just have to do it, instead of sitting around in a class room hearing about it."

"Wow, glad to know people were actually paying attention to me," Heiseki said laughing. He sat down cross legged and made the tori hand sign. He slowly built up his chakra and then released it, breathing slowly, he built it up again quicker and released. He continued to hold a steady rate of breathing and continued the process of building up his chakra and releasing it faster and faster.

Soon, when he was building his chakra up and releasing it to almost the point where he could build it as fast as he released it, he began to ache all over. He was used to it, he had felt it the last few times that he had been practicing. He knew how far to push himself past his limit and when to take a breather, but the pain was annoying and so he let his mind wander.

He thought about what the fourth and third Lords Hokage did for the village. He wanted to be like them, not the dying part, but the will to die for the village's well being was a good trait that he wished he could emulate, and hoped that if it came to it, he could put into motion.

He felt a chakra enter his field of notice, but realized that it was slightly beyond what his field was a week ago, proof that he had gotten stronger. He smiled when he recognized the chakra, "Emiko, my Dad's coming here," he said without opening his eyes.

"Good, maybe he can help, they're getting nowhere."

Heiseki opened his eyes, he didn't comment that they were doing better then he did at first. He closed his eyes and began to push himself a bit harder. When his dad got to the spot they were in, he slowly got up.

Zev handed him a water bottle, "Here don't over work your self," he looked at the others, "Chakra control exercises, huh?"

Emiko nodded, "That's right," she pointed at Heiseki, "He's got it down already so it's just these two, he's really your son."

"What do you mean by that?" Heiseki said after he drank all the water.

"When I came here, I had already mastered the tree climbing exercise and the water walking exercise, so I actually taught my squad mates, Utsuha and Leta."

"Where is mom by the way?"

"She's at home, she asked me to come check on you."

"I'm not someone she has to worry about," Heiseki said grumbling a little.

"Well," Zev said pulling out a basket, "I guess you won't be wanting this."

Thunder went off and Heiseki sat down with the basket in hand.

Zev laughed and began to turn, "oh yeah," he pointed at the basket, "your mother had me put plenty of my chakra balls into their in case you needed some more energy to continue exercising, if Emiko hasn't changed, you'll need it."

Emi looked at Emiko, "You two know each other?"

Emiko nodded, "Yeah, I'm also exiled from the Village Hidden in the Rain, I was sent as a spy, but I gave my self up in exchange to be allowed to stay here, with Zev, my old team mate."

"I was exiled first; my brother wanted my head after I saved Leta and Utsuha so I came here with them and asked to be accepted as a Kohona ninja."

"Ever miss your home?" Gaichuu asked.

Zev shook his head, "My home is Kohona, it's more a home to me then my village ever was."

Emiko looked at the others, "Lobo, his brother, stirred up dissention against him, nearly everyone hated him."

"Nearly?"

Emiko nodded, "Myself, Yukio, and our sensei Jada, for a while… my self and Yukio were poisoned against him too…"

Zev turned, "Well, I'll be seeing you later," he looked at Emiko, "You know how Osona inspired her students to work harder right?"

"Yeah, I know, but that was going to be a surprise."

"What?" Emi asked.

"You're going to have to out do Gaichuu in order to-" she stopped as Heiseki drew a kunai and walked up a tree.

When he dropped down, he said, "I made it to the top, beat that."

"You're disqualified," Emiko said smiling.

Heiseki sighed and sat back down and began to train his body and his mind some more. Emiko sighed and sat down next to him, "Do you always train your mind like that?"

He shook his head keeping concentration, "No, in fact, I only started this a week ago."

"Really?"

"Yeah," he said nodding.

"No wonder why you're so weak at it."

That threw off his concentration. He looked at her, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Haven't you seen the Hokage do it?"

He shook his head.

"Well, tomorrow I'll ask him to come and show you, after our mission."

"We're going to have another mission?"

"Yeah, a D rank of course."

"I kind of would like something a little more challenging."

Emiko looked at him, "Maybe you do, but what about Emi?"

Heiseki looked at Emi. She wasn't even half the height Gaichuu was at and that wasn't much, "I see…" he said finally.

"You might be ready for one, but Emi isn't. She needs more training."

"I understand, I'll be patient, and," he looked at Emiko, "I'll make sure Gaichuu understands too."

"Thanks," Emiko said putting her hand on his shoulder, "But I might wind up keeping him after we're done practicing."

Heiseki smiled, "I wouldn't count Emi out just yet, she just has to get a feel for it first, she'll be able to do it."

"I wouldn't be surprised, out of the three of you, she had the best grades, but, you had the worst and are performing the best so far."

He shrugged, "That's what happens when your father and grand father are heroes."

"True."

Heiseki put his hands together again and began to train his mind some more, curious as to how his grand father did it.

-S-T-O-N-E-W-A-R-R-I-O-R-

The next day, Heiseki was reminded of one other thing he hated.

"I HATE CATS!" he shouted as he kept trying to keep the cat's claws off of him.

"We have the target," Gaichuu said into a microphone.

"Copy that, target has pink bow on right ear, can you confirm?" Emiko said over the microphone.

"Negative, cat does not have a pink bow on its right ear," Gaichuu said and Heiseki let go of the cat, "oh wait," he said bending down, "the bow fell off at the point of capture."

Heiseki looked at a scratch on his arm, "this time, you initiate the capture then!" He sighed and reached for an ointment that his mother had given him. It would stop the bleeding and heal the wound much quicker, it was made with his father's chakra and her medicines.

Emi sighed, "I will," she walked off and only a second later came back with the cat curled up in her arms, "She's such a good kitty."

Gaichuu looked at Heiseki, "Why can't you do that?"

"If I could I would, just like if I had a chance I'd teach that cat to never scratch me."

Gaichuu sighed, "Emi has captured the target."

"Good, let's get back home," Emiko said at Ichiraku.

Ayame smiled, "Want to ask Heiseki if he wants me to make him a bowl of pork ramen?"

"Hey, Heiseki, Ayame wants to know if you want pork ramen."

"WHAT? WHY WEREN'T YOU HELPING US? And she knows I like miso the best."

"Oh, but I am helping you, I'm ordering for you."

Silence on the other end, "Fine, but you're paying."

"Of course, what do you want Gaichuu?"

"Pork."

"I'll take miso," Emi said as well.

"Two miso and one pork got it, meet me at Ichiraku when you've delivered the target back to the client."

They were there in a heart beat.

Heiseki downed his bowl in less then a minute and Ayame already had another bowl waiting for him. Emiko shook her head and sighed, "Just like your grandfather."

He stopped eating for a bit, "That reminds me, you said you'd have him come and show me how much better he is at training his mind."

Ayame looked up at a clock, "Wait about two minutes and thirteen seconds, he'll be here."

"Are you sure?"

"Twelve O'clock sharp," Ayame said pulling out her biggest bowl and her biggest pot to get ready for the all the ramen Naruto was going to want, "Today is… Sunday correct?"

The four nodded.

"Okay, that means miso today…"

"Is he that predictable?"

"No, but I have a calendar for him, he sets out what type of ramen he's going to want each day."

"It must be great to be hokage."

"That it is," everyone turned, the two minutes thirteen seconds up, "Hey Ayame!"

"Hey, sorry Naruto, but I was a little busy with your grandson, it will be a moment."

"That's okay, he likes ramen as much as I do," he said putting a hand on his head, "So, how are my newest ninjas coming along?"

Emiko finished the last of the ramen, "Pretty good," she said, "Emi and Gaichuu are working on their chakra control, but that's not why we were waiting for you."

"We were waiting?" Gaichuu asked.

"What were you waiting for?"

"I want you to show Heiseki what you can do with your mind sharp enough."

"Ah…" Naruto said smiling, "Step out side."

They did and he sat down cross legged on the ground with his hands in the tora hand sign, or the sign of the tiger. He sat still for a moment, as he focused himself. Heiseki didn't notice anything strange until he began to feel a slight breeze coming from his grand father's direction. His jaw dropped as his father began to levitate off the ground. His father smiled, "Now, I'm not actually floating, my chakra's a wind type, so in fact, my chakra is just creating wind and therefore, thrust," He extended his legs and was standing again, "That's a little of me just showing off, but you can see how sharp my mind is."

Heiseki immediately asked, "How?"

"How what?"

"Are you releasing chakra and then building it back up?"

"No, it's a constant flow, I release as I build up."

"That's like looking left while looking right," Heiseki said.

Naruto smiled, "You know, I said that once," he said putting his hand on Heiseki's shoulder.

"When?"

"When I made the Rasengan-shuriken," he said returning into Ichiraku, "The skill that surpassed all the previous Lords hokage…"

Heiseki thought for a moment as he watched Naruto go back into Ichiraku, he looked at Emiko, "I think I want to train on my own, is that okay?"

She nodded, "just don't overexert yourself."

He nodded and performed _Kage bushin no jutsu, _the four of him ran off in multiple directions.

Emi looked at Emiko, "Are we going to the same place as before? To do the same exercise?"

"Yes, but I think I want to talk to Lord Hokage first, you go on ahead."

Emi and Gaichuu bowed and ran off. Emiko walked back in Ichiraku, "Hokage-sama," she started.

"Is something wrong?" Naruto asked sensing her tone.

"I only know a few people who can produce more then one shadow clone, Utsuha is the only one who doesn't have demon in him to do it."

Naruto knew exactly where the conversation was going, "You think Heiseki might have one too?"

"Yes…"

Naruto thought for a moment, "he might, Leta got a bit of the nine-tailed fox from me, and Zev has his two demons… also, Zev mentioned once that there might be a third in him and Leta, which is where their ability to communicate through thought comes from…"

"I won't lie, Hokage-sama, I'm scared, what if he does have a demon and there's no seal!"

Naruto shook his head, "You might be panicking," he said, "first of all, Utsuha has a large amount of stamina, like his father, also," he looked back, "We're not sure which demon would be in Heiseki, there are three demons in Zev, one of which is also in Leta," he held up his fingers, "The first, is the benevolent one, Zev, the second, the violent one, Lobo, that's where his name and his brothers name come from. The third one has no name, but we know it's like Zev, benevolent. Leta has two, the nine-tailed fox, whose conscious has died, it's only a husk of what it was, easily manipulated to the host's will, and the one with no name.

"Also, only me and Leta have visible seals, Zev on the other hand, has no visible seal. So far each of the Alcidos has had no visible seal of which I'm aware, and I should know, I have sent ninja to steal the Alcido family scrolls and copy them. Occasionally, I have another team go and check to see what new things have been added. There is no mention of visible seals, although there is the odd trait of white hair at birth. Zev kept his white hair, as has Heiseki, I think the only fear we have, is if it turns red, like Zev's brother.

"Out of all of those demons only one is a concern if it's left unsealed, so," he returned to his ramen, "Forgive me for not yet worrying."

Emiko bowed, "Thank you, sir, for at least hearing me out."

He turned before she left, "If there's any problem, don't hesitate to come find me, he is my grand son."

Emiko nodded and left. She went to the clearing where Emi and Gaichuu were having no luck. She watched and smiled, "He's right, I'm just over reacting," she told herself, but she still wanted to talk to Zev.

She shook her head, "It's nothing to worry about, I'm just being overcautious…" she made up her mind to talk to Zev.

She found him talking to the original Heiseki, who looked exhausted. She walked up slowly, "Can I talk to you Zev?"

Zev looked at her, "Yes?"

She looked at Heiseki, "Alone…"

He got up, "I'll be right back, don't go crazy like that again."

Heiseki nodded and popped a blue chakra ball in his mouth and muscled his way past the gag reflex.

"What is it?" Zev said when they were out of ear shot.

"I'm slightly worried, Hokage-sama, says it's nothing to worry about , but I can't shake this fear."

"Of what?"

"Does Heiseki have a demon in him?"

Zev shook his head, "But there is something different about him."

"What?"

"He has a massive reserve of chakra, its bigger then mine, and Leta's, like he _is _a demon."

"Combined or…"

Zev shook his head, "No, his body would literally made of chakra if that was the case, but if he opens one of the eight inner gates," he paused, "It will be the equivalent of us opening five…"

Emiko's jaw dropped open, "But, then will he die if he achieves the second gate opening?"

"No, each gate after the first will be significantly less after that, but that first burst will be enough, but… a six gates formation will be the equivalent of an eight gate formation for us, minus the death. We don't know what will happen if he assumes an eight inner gates formation."

"The same thing that almost killed Yukio…" Emiko said suddenly on the verge of crying.

"Emiko!" Zev said putting his hands on her shoulder, "Its okay!"

Heiseki turned the corner, "Something wrong?"

"It's nothing," Emiko said shaking her head, "you're father's right."

"What is it?"

"There's a third of us exiles from my village, Yukio, you know him."

"Oh, yeah, no sense of direction."

Emiko winced, "Ouch…"

Zev shrugged, "Well he's right," he looked back at Heiseki, "Well, about a year before you were born," he started, "Emiko was caught by some ninja who recognized her, needless to say, it didn't go well. Yukio saved her but had to enter a eight inner gates formation, a technique that kills the user. After he was finished, Emiko began to try and save his life, for three days to be exact," he sighed, "his life was saved, but his chakra pathways were entirely destroyed. They carved his name into the stone monument reserved for ninja who gave their lives for their comrades."

Heiseki nodded slowly, "I see, so Emiko saved his life."

Zev nodded and smiled at Emiko, "Why don't you go back to the others?" When Emiko left, Zev looked at Heiseki, "Emiko doesn't see it that way, she thinks she failed."

"But, I thought the eight inner gates when all opened killed the user!"

"They do."

"Then how could she view it as a failure?"

"I don't know," Zev said shaking her head, "Yukio tells her the same thing all the time, but Emiko thinks that if she had been more skilled, she could have saved him entirely."

Heiseki nodded, "Okay, so don't bring it up?"

"Exactly."

Heiseki nodded, "Alright, I'll get back to-" he stumbled and looked at his dad, "Never mind, I think I'm going undo the jutsu and then go back to watching the others."

"Okay," Zev said nodding.

Heiseki undid the jutsu and collapsed from the weight of the information that his head took in. Zev grabbed him and sighed, "Too much at one time," he said as he took Heiseki back to where he had seen them training the other day.

Emi dropped immediately and ran to his side, "what happened?"

"Oh, he just took in too much information at one time," he said, "he'll be fine."

Emi smiled, "That's good."

Zev thought for a moment and put his fingers on Heiseki's forehead, "_Saceno no jutsu_!" he didn't do it with even a quarter strength. At full strength, the jutsu would have blown Heiseki off his feet if he was awake and standing. It was a jutsu that was used almost like the Jyuuken, only it wasn't as precise, nevertheless, it was a powerful jutsu that fired lightning bolts out of the user's hands.

Since it wasn't even quarter strength, all it did was shock him awake, "OUCH!" he yowled.

Zev held out a chakra ball, "Take this and stay awake, you're lucky I was there, otherwise you would have been left on that roof top."

"Thanks… I think…" Heiseki said as he popped the chakra ball in his mouth, "You know, after so many times, it doesn't taste so bad…"

Emi looked at Zev, not quite sure what to say. He looked at her, "You know, you could use a shadow clone to help train yourself."

Emi shook her head, "Only one, that doesn't look like it would help much."

"It would help a little, that's all that matters, just that little bit," Zev said before leaving.

Emi sighed and got back up, "I suppose I should go back to training," She took Zev's advice and made a shadow clone.

Emiko showed up and looked at Heiseki, she did a double take, "how'd you get here?"

"I passed out soon after you left and my Dad brought me here."

"Oh, _Relatzer no jutsu_," she said. She looked at Emi, "Hey, do you think Emi's capable of tackling a C rank mission yet?"

Heiseki thought for a while, "I don't think so…"

"When do you think she will?"

"I don't know, but I think it would be best to continue training every day while performing D rank missions until me _and_ Gaichuu both feel that she's capable."

"Don't I have a vote?"

"Well, of course, you can simply just ask for a C rank mission and we'll do it, but if me and Gaichuu both don't quite fully believe in Emi, well," he shrugged.

"I see what you're saying…"

Heiseki looked up, "Me and Gaichuu talked the other day…"

"What about?"

"We both decided, we'll wait as long as it takes for us to believe in Emi and as long it takes for her to believe in herself," he looked at Emiko, "You just worry about training her, me and Gaichuu will train with my grandpa, as well as with you."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 

A year later, Heiseki had grown nearly two feet from his height of five feet two inches to six feet nine inches. He was still growing, in mind as well as his body. Gaichuu himself was much taller now as well, he, who had been the smallest at around four feet seven inches, was now the tallest at six feet eleven inches, and could manage to intimidate Emiko with his height and the bugs that crawled out of his skin.

Emiko on the other hand, was now the midget out of the group, she was five feet four inches, and Heiseki had to be careful to not completely over look her. She grew into the habit of wearing heeled shoes just to add to her height.

They were walking to meet with Emiko to do another mission. Gaichuu looked at Heiseki, "Hey, WS."

"What?" Heiseki said looking at him.

"Do you think it's time we stop training and start really doing missions?"

Heiseki bit his lip and watched Emi, he looked at Gaichuu, "I think, but I'm not entirely sure, what about you?"

Gaichuu thought, "Maybe in a month," he smiled, "you know what today is?"

"I don't know, what?"

"Today's a day after-" he was cut off by someone shouting.

"Look, it's team errand runners!"

Heiseki groaned, "Get out of our way Akihito."

"Aw… look at the cute little genin!" He said laughing.

"Who are you fooling?" Gaichuu said lowering the sunglasses he had made a habit of wearing in the past year, "Everyone knows you three failed the first part of the chuunin exams, three times."

Akihito started grinding his teeth, "You know, I think this bug needs to be squashed, what do you guys think?"

Kanshin and Saisan laughed and cracked their knuckles.

Emi sighed and kicked with her heel into Kanshin, Heiseki winced as Kanshin doubled over. Emi was wearing stiletto heels today, and that was not something he wanted to experience.

She looked at Saisan and smiled wickedly, "Want to have children? Back off!"

Saisan stepped back.

Gaichuu looked at Heiseki, "I think that settles it."

"Oh yeah."

"Want to kick Akihito into next week?"

"Nah, we don't have time for self indulgence, let's get to Emiko-sensei."

"All right, come on Emi, leave the poor loser alone."

Emi backed off and pointed at him, "You're lucky!" Emi turned and ran to catch up with Heiseki. He smiled and held out her arm for her.

Emiko was waiting at the top of the steps, "I saw what you did to team four," she turned inside and didn't say anything else. The others looked at each other and followed her inside.

Naruto saw them coming and pulled out a scroll covered in Ds, "We don't have a lot of D ranked missions, you take care of-"

"Sir," Heiseki said for him and Gaichuu, "We'd like a C ranked mission."

Naruto smiled as did Sakura who was sitting down next to him, "What brought about this change?"

Heiseki put his hands on Emi's shoulders, "Me and Gaichuu both feel that Emi's ready for it, we had been waiting until we were sure that she was ready, we were content to wait and train while she trained."

"Ah, that explains why you've both been making time to train with me," he said reaching for a scroll covered with Cs.

Emi looked down at her feet. She was embarrassed that they had been waiting for her before taking a real mission. Heiseki pulled her close and smiled at her. She brushed her hair back behind her ear and smiled back.

Naruto thought for a moment, "This mission is a bit tough, almost B ranked, but I know you, Heiseki, and you, Gaichuu, can handle it.

"We need someone to escort a man through rough territory. We're assuming that the enemy will be bandits and other low lives, but there _might,_ I stress _might_, be enemy ninja. So be sharp!"

"Who are we escorting?"

"Wakatai," Naruto said nodding behind them, "try to put up with him."

"Hey, I thought I had asked for the best!" he said glaring at them.

"They will do, unless there's something you're not telling us."

He bit his lip for a moment, "Well, I suppose I should thank you, I'll be saving quite a bit of money."

Heiseki shrugged and looked at him, "Where is it your headed?"

"A little south of the land of lightning," Naruto answered, "That's the main argument for putting this under a B rank classification."

Heiseki nodded. The assaults from the cloud country had grown more and more frequent as things had been escalating. He felt a shuriken on his belt, he'd be ready.

"Well, come on then, I want out of this dump."

The first day of travel brought enough challenges. They didn't have time to worry about the possible enemies they had, they were having enough trouble trying not to kill their client for his pessimistic attitude.

When they finally made camp, Emiko volunteered for first watch. Emi was the first to fall asleep. She was the closest to the fire. Wakatai fell asleep soon after and woke Emi. Emi covered her head with Heiseki's pillow which he gave up to block out their clients snoring. Heiseki was fine sleeping on the rocky ground. He himself was like a rock.

But even him, asleep like a rock, heard the sound of people approaching. He wasn't sure if Emiko heard it, but he knew he did, and unclipped three shuriken from his belt. When they were close enough, he threw the shuriken at the three approaching figures. He heard two sounds of metal deflecting metal and one sound of the shuriken hitting something softer and then heard them feeling.

He looked at Emiko. She sighed, "I was waiting for them to get closer so we could see who they were," she stated, "Oh well, now they at least know they can't sneak up on us, you can go back to sleep."

Heiseki did so, this time, he was the first to fall asleep; beating the others by quite a bit.

The next day the client was in a bit of a more cheerful mood, "Ah…that was a good rest!" he said smiling and stretching out, "Although, I thought you would have done a better job of protecting me."

Emiko shook her head, "You were never in any danger, I was trying to see if they were bandits, or enemy ninja."

"What would it matter?"

"If it was enemy ninja, then we would have turned back and had higher ranked ninja do this task. If not, I would have taken care of them."

The client growled, "Well, don't let them near me again! Understand!"

"We didn't let them get near you," Heiseki said, "Like she said, you were never in any danger."

"That was too close as it was!" He said growling again, "I would never let them get so close!"

Heiseki noticed something but waited.

That night, when the client and everyone else was asleep, he pointed it out to Emiko, "Did you catch what he said?"

"What do you mean?" Emiko said sleepily, it was near the end of her watch.

"What he said, I would never let them get so close… if he knew about them coming he could have said something, if he could defend himself, why did he hire us?"

Emiko waived it off, "You're over thinking it," she said, "go back to sleep."

Heiseki decided he might have been, and went back to sleep.

The next few days presented no problems. In fact, they were mostly bored. They spent more time trying to kill time then protect Wakatai. It wasn't until they got closer and closer to their destination that problems arouse.

It happened again at night. Heiseki heard the enemy coming during his watch. He threw his shuriken and then performed _Kage shuriken bushin no jutsu _and heard many of his shuriken deflected by metal. He heard a few strike flesh and a few more impact on something soft.

He looked at Emiko who frowned, he performed _Kage bushin no jutsu _and his clone went running off.

"Wait! Don't go after them!" Wakatai said holding his hand up as if to stop Heiseki's clone.

"Sorry, too late," Heiseki said, "my clone already went after them."

"Well," he said, shrugging, "I suppose there's nothing I can do right, just hope it kills them," Wakatai laid back down and went to sleep.

Emiko looked at Heiseki; he waived his hand and motioned for her to keep quiet.

She nodded and went back to sleep.

Heiseki's clone followed the trail of blood. It was hard to see but he tried hard and was able to follow it with no problem. That was, until four senbon pierced his arm and spread a paralyzing poison through his arm.

He fell on the ground and looked up. A kunochi walked up to him, "Why did you chase us?"

He looked at his arm, _yellow senbon? _He thought, _Where have I heard something like-_ he looked at the kanji on her dress, "Ai?" he said aloud.

Another voice broke in, "How'd you know her name?"

"Well, besides it written on her dress," he said trying to sit up, "I'm Zev's son."

Ai looked at her husband, "Should we trust him?" he was the one Heiseki had hit. Heiseki deduced that he was Sahlhi, one of Gaara's sons. From his father's stories that Heiseki had asked about, he knew he had control of sand like his father, but could override the sand shield, which he had done to protect his wife.

Heiseki sat up, "Why should I lie? I'm a shadow clone, you can't really kill me."

The third voice broke in, "If you're Zev's son, tell me this, what was his name when we were coming to our village?" the speaker was Saken, Gaara's eldest son; he had a spirit sealed inside him. It had been running from something, although no one figured out what.

"Shinri, later he changed it to Tengin to add one more barrier to protect the leaf village. He pretended to be specializing in taijutsu with swords, while there, he learned another kekkei genkai technique that let him copy the answers directly from the answer sheet in the pocket of the chief proctor, Sashii copied the answers from him, who in turn gave the answers to you, Saken, and then Utsuha copied off of you."

"Okay, so you really are his son, what are you doing protecting that ninja?"

"What?"

"You don't know?"

"I just know I want to strangle him for being so pessimistic."

"He's a ninja from the village hidden in the clouds, he's carrying information on our village and yours," Ai said taking out the senbon, "I don't know how he's managed to evade your own detection since you've been traveling…"

Heiseki grunted as Ai pulled out the senbon, "Well, I have noticed he acts a little strange, he talks as if he's better then us…"

Sahlhi looked Heiseki in the eyes, "Don't trust him, see if you can find anything out, anything at all, you don't even have to trust us, if you find what's he's carrying, then you'll know we're speaking the truth."

Heiseki nodded and undid the _Kage bushin no jutsu_. Elsewhere Heiseki got the information. He sat down next to Wakatai. Wakatai didn't stir. He put his hand on Wakatai's bag, completely silent all the while.

Wakatai grabbed Heiseki's arm, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Hmm… that's what I thought…"

Heiseki got up and sat next to Emiko who was giving him strange looks. He looked at her and in a hushed tone said, "Do the names, Ai, Saken, and Sahlhi mean anything to you?"

Emiko's jaw dropped, "We're up against them? Why? What's going on?"

Heiseki drew a kunai, he wasn't sure if Wakatai could hear him, "They say our client is really from the Village Hidden in the Clouds, if they're right, we're escorting a man with all our weaknesses listed to our executioners."

Emiko bit her lip, "We can't be sure that they're right thought, I would like to think they wouldn't lie to us, but…" she shook her head, "We can't be sure."

_I could, if I could manage byakugan_, he thought but despite all his efforts to achieve it, he never managed. It might have been that his genetic defect prevented from him doing it, but no one was sure. Not even Sakura, the villages best medic ninja.

Heiseki stared at the bag a long time, trying to pierce through it, but the ability eluded him still. He sighed, "Let's go to sleep."

-S-T-O-N-E-W-A-R-R-I-O-R-

Two days before they would arrive at their destination, the Sand ninja made their move in broad daylight. Sahlhi was in the middle of the road, the sand swirling about the ground.

Wakatai pointed at him, "What are you waiting for attack him!"

Sahlhi looked at Heiseki, "Did you manage to get a peek at what he's carrying?"

Heiseki shook his head, "He'd notice when I'd touch the bag."

"What does that lead you to believe?"

Heiseki drew a kunai, "He's a puppet master, I felt the strings when I touched the bag."

Emiko looked at him, "Say what?"

Suddenly several shuriken shot out of Wakatai's bag. Sand rose up to defend the leaf ninja, "Well, that proves it," Sahlhi said as the sand turned into clones of him.

Heiseki rushed Wakatai. A blade leapt to Wakatai's hand, "Close but-"

He was cut off as Heiseki caught his hand and elbowed him in the side, still holding onto his arm, slide around his back. Pushing the arm up along the spine, he shattered Wakatai's arm.

Wakatai turned and nearly stabbed Heiseki. Heiseki ducked and Wakatai turned and kicked him away.

Emi looked at Emiko, "how can he fight with his arm destroyed like that?" she asked as Sahlhi began to move.

Wakatai lifted the ground and pummeled Sahlhi's shield with several fair sized boulders, "You look confused, let me explain," Heiseki began preparing his next move, "At the age of eight, the Raikage cut off all my nervous system below my shoulders, so that I could be so much stronger, I am a puppet master, but it's my self that I'm manipulating. I can't feel pain, it doesn't matter if all my bones are broken, you'll have to crush me into dust!"

Heiseki charge from behind and stole the bag. He pulled out the scroll that contained the data on his village, "Gaichuu, take care of this."

He handed it to Gaichuu and charged again. This time, landing blows to his head. Heiseki backed off for a moment and then put a kunai in his hand, "You may not feel pain underneath your shoulders, but I bet your head still feels pain."

He ran forward and motioned to attack his head, when Wakatai brought his arms up to defend his head, he stabbed him in the side, "I bet you still bleed too."

Wakatai shouted, "_Den fu no jutsu_!" and Heiseki managed to get away from the fist but the lightning struck him and he couldn't feel his right leg. He collapsed and watched as Wakatai pulled the kunai out and almost no blood poured out. Not even a second later, the wound completely healed.

Emi tried to stand but couldn't, "Shoot," he said as he fell back over.

Wakatai looked at Heiseki. He held up his hand and the kunai floated into a position in front of his palm, "This will make one down…" he said and the kunai flew at Heiseki.

"Hei!"

Heiseki looked at Emi. She smiled and fell forward on him. The kunai pierced her shoulder. She gritted her teeth, "You… okay?"

He grabbed her and stood up, his leg completely forgotten, "You… are going to pay for that!"

Heiseki held out his hand _"Chidorian, Warrior stone style!" _Heiseki charged Wakatai as he focused the Chidorian into his right left hand and grabbed his head with his right hand. He refocused the Chidorian into his right hand and it blew into Wakatai's face, but that was only the first step in his style of Chidorian.

Building chakra as he expelled it, Heiseki blasted three focused Chidorians into Wakatai's face.

He let Wakatai collapse. He spat on his unconscious body and then ran back to Emi. He looked at Emiko, "She's unconscious!"

Emiko got down and put her hands on Emi's shoulder, "There's a poison in her body," she began working to remove the poison, "I can remove it, but she shouldn't be moving for a while."

Sahlhi looked at Heiseki, "You did good, I'll take it from here."

Gaichuu looked at him, "What's left?" he asked as sand covered the body.

"He's not quite dead," he said raising his hand and the sand with the body still encased in it, "_Sabaku Sousou_!"

Gaichuu turned away from the now bloody sight.

Gaichuu looked at Emi, "Where's Ai and Saken?"

"I had them stay back in case I failed."

"Did you expect to?"

"No."

"Then, why keep them back?"

"Simply protection," he said, "I can't let Ai get hurt."

Heiseki put a hand on Emi's cheek, "you'll be alright," he whispered and smiled.

Gaichuu opened the scroll, "This is a recipe for soup… some messed up recipe…"

"It's code," Sahlhi explained, "Only he knew the code and someone in the cloud village, let me see that scroll."

Gaichuu handed him the scroll, and the sand tore through it leaving nothing but shredded bits of paper. Sahlhi looked at Emiko, "Will the girl be alright?"

"Yes, but…"

"But what?" Heiseki asked

"This poison is particularly difficult to get out, and I need to get each individual drop out, or she still might succumb to the poison.

Heiseki looked at her, "You can get it all right?"

"I believe so, still, she should avoid moving for a while."

Sahlhi looked at the ninja, "I can carry her, it's been a while since I've seen Zev, and I would like to see him and Leta again, as well as Sashii."

Emiko smiled, "Okay, I think it would be a good idea."

Sahlhi raised his hand and created a bed made out of sand. Emiko put Emi on and said, "She should be okay, she just needs lots of rest."

"okay, I just gave the all clear to Ai and Saken using my sand, we can meet up with them on the way."

Heiseki put his hand into Emi's, "That sounds okay."

Emiko looked at him, "You did good, Heiseki, I didn't know that you could do that."

"Well, I have been training with the Hokage for the past year, along with my father."

"Is this one of your first missions?"

"Our first C rank." Gaichuu answered.

"C?"

"Yeah, we nearly did three-hundred-forty-five D rank missions."

"You've got to be kidding…"

"Yeah," Heiseki said nodding, "We've been waiting to make sure Emi was ready."

"Well, she did well enough," Emiko said, "She threw herself in front of you before she even thought about it."

Heiseki looked at Emi, "She'll be alright?"

"Yeah," she said, "She just needs some rest."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 

Leta put a plate of her food in front of Emi, "I'm sorry your first C rank turned out so horribly."

Emi thanked her, "Its okay," she said and put a hand on Heiseki's who hadn't left her side since they had gotten back. She smiled and began to eat.

Zev looked at Sahlhi, "So, how've you been? Haven't seen you in a long time, I didn't know you got married."

"Well," he said looking at Ai, "We're happy."

"Any children yet?"

"Two," Sahlhi said, "And one more on the way," he said putting his and over her stomach.

"I couldn't imagine having to share a house with two siblings," Heiseki said.

Leta smiled, "Get used to it."

Heiseki looked at his mother, "Are you serious?"

She sat down next to her husband, "We're having twins, two daughters."

Heiseki was a little excited, but a little apprehensive at the same time. Emi smiled, "That's so cool, you'll have two sisters!"

Heiseki shrugged, "I'm not baby-sitting them."

Emi laughed and leaned into Heiseki, "Why am I not surprised?"

Saken looked at Sashii, "How have you been? We haven't been getting as many letters as we were before."

"Our son…" she paused, "Well… let's just say that I hope our next child is a daughter…"

"Well, since Leta and Ai are expecting… are you?"

Sashii shook her head, "No, not yet anyways…"

"I see…"

Sashii looked at Saken, "what about you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Wife? Kids?"

Saken shook his head, "No, haven't had time to think about that."

"That's too bad…"

He shrugged, "Well, not much I can do," he looked at her, "it's been getting too easy to call on Anupu's strength."

"Anupu?" Emi repeated looking at Saken.

"A five tailed jackal demon. Two of his tails though are completely mine."

"What do you mean?"

"I two fifth's of Anupu's strength, which I can unleash at anytime, but I can call on his full strength at times, but," he clutched the side of his head, "Sometimes," his voice suddenly deeper, "it tries to force more strength on me."

Ai stood up, but Sahlhi had her sit back down with his sand. He stood up and neared Saken, but Saken kneeled, "I'm fine, back off!" Sahlhi did so.

"You don't sound fine," Sashii said moving to him.

Sahlhi's sand held her back, "No, if he wasn't, he wouldn't have been able to talk. This is a very small attack."

"How often do these attacks happen?" Zev asked, ready to spring to help.

"Once a day," Sahlhi said, "usually."

Zev bit his lip, "Any idea why these are coming on?"

"No idea, but after each attack we have to leave him alone a while so that he can get used to his new strength…"

Saken slowly stood and began to leave. Sahlhi opened the door for him with out getting up and Saken nodded.

Sahlhi looked at Sashii, "So, where is your son?"

"He's in school," Sashii then added, "hopefully."

Heiseki looked at Emi and shook his head.

Sahlhi looked at him, "What is it?"

"That's just not-"

"Hey, WS! You're back!"

"Likely…"

Youryu walked in, "What's up?" he looked at Sahlhi and Ai, "Who are these people?"

"Remember my stories of Sahlhi and Saken? Well, this is Sahlhi and his wife, Ai."

Youryu bowed, "Nice to meet you."

"He's got good manners."

"He can't stay in school for five minutes, that's his problem!" Sashii said looking at him, "You're going to be in so much trouble when your father hears about this!"

"He knows I snuck out already," He said smiling, "Sakura-sensei's already got a hold of him."

"That isn't going to help your predicament any!" She said grabbing him by the ear, "You are so grounded!"

"Ah… mom…"

"Don't 'ah mom' me! You aren't getting out of this one! No matter what sweet talking you try this time!"

"Did you lose weight?"

"Yes I did, but you're still grounded!"

Sahlhi laughed, "I hope our next child doesn't turn out like that."

Zev looked at him, "You're lucky, Heiseki here was worse. At least Youryu keeps his grades up. Heiseki skipped nearly every day."

Ai smiled and put her hand in Sahlhi's, "Our daughter's are little angels, they haven't given us any problems."

Zev sighed and leaned back, "You have no idea how lucky you are."

There was a knock on the door, "I heard some ninja's were visiting our village."

Sahlhi and Ai stood up and bowed, "Hokage-sama!" Sahlhi looked up, "Whoa, the years have been kind to you!"

Naruto smiled, "Thanks. It's been some time since I've seen Gaara, how has he been?"

"Good, rest is still hard to come by for him, but his spirits are still high."

Naruto nodded, "I see," he looked at Heiseki and Emi, "I'm sorry about your mission, had I know what Wakatai really was, I wouldn't have sent you on it."

"It's okay," Emi said smiling.

Naruto shook his head, "If I had known, I would have sent ANBU after him, and it would have been graded an A rank mission," he held out a card in front of them and exposed it to his chakra, "I'll have you know, I listed it as one."

Zev took the cards out of Naruto's hands, "I see, I thank you on their behalf…" he paused as he reviewed the data on the cards, "Emi, you're skills are somewhat lacking… you should focus on one skill and train it," he gave her the card with her information on it and Heiseki his.

Heiseki looked at his, his information for Kekkei genkai abilities was maxed out, but his genjutsu skills were non-existent. He frowned, besides being able to do a _henge jutsu_ that was it. He looked at Emi's. Her skills were completely average.

Emi glanced over at Heiseki's card and sighed, "I suppose your right…"

Emiko put her hand on her shoulder, "But that can wait a while, you have to get completely better before you can think of training."

Emi sighed and put her head in her hands. She rubbed her eyes and smiled weakly at Heiseki, "I have to go," she said, "I'll see you later," she kissed him on the cheek and left, clutching at her wounded shoulder as she went out the door.

Heiseki looked at the half finished plate in front of him and got up quickly to follow. Leta sighed, "They grow up so quickly."

Sashii looked at Youryu, "Not quickly enough in some cases!"

Naruto shook his head and looked at her, "Be careful, blink and he'll be off on his own, trust me, I know."

Sashii sighed, "You're-" she turned, "WHERE'D HE GO?"

"I said, he'd be off on his own," Naruto said with a slight smile touching his lips, "Anyways, anyone up for ramen?"

Heiseki ran up to Emi, "Wait!" she turned and then looked down at her feet, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing at all."

"You're a bad liar," he said putting his hands on her arms, "really, what's wrong?"

She sighed, "Your father's a hero to our village, and your grandfather is the hokage, you can turn to them at anytime, but me…" she shook her head, "I just feel so weak…"

"That's a lie, you saved my life. If I'm so strong, then why did I need you to save me?"

Emi looked at him, "Thanks but-"

"Hey, WS! Want to-?"

Heiseki glared at Youryu, "I'm trying to talk to Emi? Can you leave us alone."

Youryu was offended at first, but realized that he shouldn't be there, "Okay, cheer her up," he said before leaving.

Emi laughed sadly, "Cheer me up? That will take a bit of work…"

"Work that I'm willing to do, come on, let's go."

-S-T-O-N-E-W-A-R-R-I-O-R-

Emi leaned into Heiseki, "Why'd you bring me up here?"

"This is where I go to think, I wanted you to think too."

"Think about what? How weak I am compared to you and Gaichuu?"

"Gaichuu did nothing the last mission, it was you and I that did anything."

"And all that happened was that I got hurt," Emi said shaking her head.

"And saved my life."

"You're a rock, Heiseki, I doubt you could have been hurt."

Heiseki pulled her closer, which was a quite a feat, "Rocks can be destroyed, Emi."

"I know."

He looked at her, "I guarantee, our next mission will be different."

"You sure?"

"Promise."

She smiled and looked down at the village, "How can you be so sure?"

"Well, that last mission was a mistake on my grandpa's part, he won't let something like that happen ever again, so the next mission will really be a C rank mission, and I'll be sure that you can do something, even if it's just helping me and Gaichuu lick our wounds, that's still something."

Emi shook her head, "I don't want to be a weak kunochi."

Heiseki held up a finger and pointed to the left, "That's how Tsunade started out, I bet."

"But, she was one of the Sanin!"

"And my grandpa, Sakura, and Sasuke all are new Sanin, why can't we be the next?"

"Like we could train under them?"

Heiseki burst out laughing, "I'm sorry, but whose grandpa is one of them?"

"Do you really think that he'll help?"

Heiseki smiled, "Well, if I ask _really_ nicely."

Emi laughed, "Thanks," she kissed him on the cheek, "You really did manage to cheer me up."

An explosion in the village went off and they both looked down. Heiseki counted the seconds until the tell-tale signs that ANBU black ops were already in place and had taken care of the enemy. He didn't get to one.

He sighed, "You'd think they'd-" he stopped and drew a kunai.

"What is it?"

"I sense an unknown chakra, it's… red… but… I feel fire."

He suddenly grabbed Emi and jumped from the stone face. He got a look at the attacker as they plummeted, _dad? No… dad has blue eyes… his are like mine, red…_Heiseki threw a kunai at the assailant, "_Kage shuriken no jutsu!" _

Their opponent pointed his fingers at Heiseki, "_Saceno no jutsu!_" he shouted ignoring the mass of kunais flying at him.

Emi heard the jutsu name and gasped despite herself, she had seen Zev use that same jutsu before, and she knew the second level could strike them. The second level of the jutsu could strike over long ranges, and they couldn't dodge.

Heiseki turned so that he was in between Emi and their assailant, he wasn't going to let her get hurt. He couldn't. He wouldn't. He never would let any harm come to her.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 

Heiseki woke up with Emi over him, "Wake up!" she was repeating through sobs. She looked back and he sat up. His shirt was destroyed, but skin was perfectly fine. He tore off the last of his shirt. And looked at it, it looked like it had been burned.

Emi looked back at him, "We have to get out of here!" she said panicked.

"What's-" he stopped as the red fire chakra approached again. He grabbed Emi's hand and pulled her away and they ducked under some rubble. Emi was about to speak but Heiseki covered her mouth and put his finger to his lips, indicating silence.

Emi nodded and kept low. She was very scared, but put her trust in Heiseki. She put her hand on Heiseki's shoulder. He touched her hand and then moved it down so that she wasn't as visible to anyone outside.

Heiseki knew the red fire chakra was coming closer. He tried to make himself smaller. He couldn't help but feel vulnerable, he wasn't close to being a light weight, and he would have done anything to switch himself with Gaichuu, who would have drawn less attention.

When the red fire chakra wasn't approaching any closer, he began to wonder how they survived the fall from the Lords hokage faces. The last thing he remembered was him trying to protect Emi.

He felt two other chakra's approach and he had to keep himself from breathing a sigh of relief, but then he began to panic as he realized that one was his mother, and he wasn't sure if she knew about the red fire chakra.

He looked at Emi, "Emi, my mom is nearby, so is my grandpa, I have to go make sure they know about that guy who attacked us."

Emi was about to stop him, but then nodded, "Hurry back."

"I will," he ran out after making sure the red fire chakra was far enough away that he wouldn't be able to find Emi. He soon found his mother and his father. He glared at his mother, "You shouldn't be here."

She was taken aback by his tone, "Wha-?"

He pointed at her, "You have two other lives with you, get out of here."

Naruto looked at her and nodded, "He's right, go."

Leta nodded and began to run away, "Grandpa, can you go with her? There's an enemy ninja here, he looks a lot like my-"

Naruto put his hand over Heiseki's mouth, "Red hair, red eyes?"

Heiseki nodded.

Naruto looked at him, "Stay low," he ordered, "I'm going with your mother."

Heiseki nodded and ran away. When he was sure that no one was watching him, he ducked back in with Emi, "You okay?"

She nodded and grabbed his arm, "I was really worried that you weren't coming back."

"I've only been gone a minute."

"It feels longer."

He nodded and lifted a piece of rubble to cover themselves more, "I won't be leaving anytime soon," he told her and then kept her close to him. She put her hand on his chest and leaned into him.

Heiseki's senses were pounding him. He began to feel heat just by the closeness of their unknown enemy. The red chakra that felt of fire kept getting closer and closer, until he was right over them.

He looked at Emi, if they made one made sound they would know, and he was already breathing heavily from the heat that his enemy's chakra emitted.

He let himself breathe when he felt another red chakra appear, one much more familiar and welcome.

"Lobo!" he heard his grandpa shout, "What happened to Orochimaru?"

"Dead, for real this time. I killed him, it was enjoyable," Heiseki and Emi cringed under the maniacal laugh that Lobo let out following his statement.

"What are you doing here?"

"Do you need to ask?" Lobo said beginning to pace, "I'm offended by this village, I want to see this…" Heiseki could tell Lobo was spreading his arms out to point at all the rubble around them, "through out this village!"

"It won't happen, not as long as I'm Hokage!"

Lobo laughed, "What can you do?" he said pointing accusingly at him, "You! Who have no control of your demon to speak of!"

Heiseki felt a burst of red chakra from his grandfather, then he realized something, Lobo couldn't sense the chakra the way he did. His grand father had a plan.

"Rasengan shuriken!"

Lobo laughed, "You're going to have to catch me first," there was a sound like fire crackling, "But can you catch me?" he said from a different position.

"Time to update your bingo book!" Naruto shouted and threw the shuriken.

"You still have to-"

"_Kage shuriken no jutsu!" _

Lobo swore as the thousands of deadly swirls of chakra went off.

Naruto wasn't sure how Lobo had survived, but he pointed at him and shouted, "Know this! If the cloud or any other village attacks again, I'll unleash that a million fold on their village!"

There was that crackling of fire again and Naruto turned to look for Heiseki. Heiseki kicked out the rubble that was covering them and he pulled Emi out with him.

Naruto looked at them, "Are you two all right?"

Emi looked at the faces of the Lords hokage, "Yes, but I don't know how, we should be dead."

Naruto looked at the faces, "Let's go, fortunately, ANBU black ops isn't easily fooled by enemy movements."

"What's that mean?" Heiseki said pulling Emi in front of him and putting his arms around her.

"Sasuke isn't known as the one of the new Sanin for no reason," Heiseki fell on the ground as a giant toad fell in front of them, "Hey, Gamabunta, how's the battle going?"

Gamabunta groaned, "I'm not happy fighting with Manda, how Sasuke can control him, I'll never know."

Naruto pulled Emi and Heiseki onto Gamabunta, "Take us back, I need to make sure these ones are safe."

"Who are they?"

"My grandson and his girlfriend."

Gamabunta looked at Heiseki, "So, you are the trouble maker that Naruto laughs about."

Heiseki looked at Naruto, "You talk to him a lot?"

"Of course, I don't know a better person to share a good sake with," Naruto said smiling, "Now, let's go!"

"Hang on!"

They kept themselves sealed on Gamabunta as he hopped from one part of the village to the other. Manda turned, "Given half a chance, I'd kill you right now."

Sasuke stomped on his head, "You won't."

He looked at Sasuke and swore quite profanely at him.

Gamabunta glared at him, "I'd do the same."

Naruto sighed, "We're spending more time keeping you guys off each other then we are fighting the enemy."

Heiseki looked at Naruto, "We're going to go," he said, "I want to keep Emi away from the battle."

Gamabunta nodded and set them down, "Its okay, we're just finishing up anyways."

Heiseki pulled Emi away and found a spot for her to hide in, he set her in the spot and then began to cover her, but she stopped him, "Aren't you going to stay with me?"

He shook his head, "I have to go help fight."

Emi jumped up, "No! Then you have to take me with you!"

Heiseki shook his head, "No! It's too dangerous."

Emi shook her head, "I don't care, you're either staying with me, or I'm coming with you!"

"Emi…"

"Don't 'Emi' me! I'm coming with!"

Heiseki was about to argue but then realized that he hadn't paying attention. He drew a kunai, "You want to come with, fine, get ready, we have company."

Emi reached for a weapon and realized she didn't have one, as Emiko had told her not to carry anything extra because of the poison that might still be in her body. She took a fighting stance and looked at Heiseki. Heiseki was like a stone.

She put her hands together, "_Kage bushin no jutsu_!" she created one clone.

"_Kage bushin no jutsu_!" Heiseki shouted making four shadow clones.

Emi was once again reminded of how weak she was when each of his shadow clones performed _Chidorian_.

Emi was left with no one to fight as Heiseki took every enemy down. He looked at Emi, "You all right?"

Emi ran past Heiseki and kicked a enemy cloud ninja in the face with her heel, "Yeah," she said as she looked at the enemy ninja get up, clutching his nose.

Heiseki prepared to throw a kunai at the enemy, but out of nowhere, bugs came over and climbed all over the enemy. He screamed as the bugs drained his chakra.

"I've been looking for you," a friendly voice said.

"Thanks for saving us," Emi said smiling at Gaichuu.

Gaichuu smiled, "Don't thank me yet, wait until we kill off all the enemy," Gaichuu raised his hand and made a motion like throwing a weapon, a swarm of bugs flew out of his arm and the bugs sliced into an enemy.

Heiseki turned and looked in another direction, "More that way! A ways away though."

"Then don't worry about them!" Gaichuu said attacking more soldiers and throwing himself into the fray.

"They're making no attempt to hide their chakra, they're strong."

"What'd I just say?" Gaichuu said grabbing an enemy ninja on the face and the bugs crawled out of his skin and onto the enemy's face.

Heiseki looked at Gaichuu, "One is particularly strong, and familiar, let's get out here, now!" Heiseki grabbed Emi and pulled her so that she was standing on his feet, "Gaichuu, run, I'm taking Emi now, but I can't be sure you're alright unless you go now!"

Gaichuu looked at Heiseki, he nodded and left abruptly leaving a great many enemy ninja crippled on the ground. Heiseki performed _Relatzer no jutsu _and left the field.

Emi looked up at Heiseki, "What is it we were running from?"

"The Raikage," Heiseki said.

"If I'm not mistaken, that was _Relatzer no jutsu_."

Heiseki jumped, he hadn't felt the fire red chakra until it was too late. He put Emi behind him, "Who are you?"

"Me? I'm Lobo, and you might as well call me uncle Lobo, although, we might not actually be blood related, I wonder…" he walked around Heiseki, Emi and Heiseki kept turning so that he never actually got a direct look at Emi. He smiled, "So, you're the grandson of the Hokage, correct?"

"What makes you say that?" Heiseki said, his voice unwavering despite the overpowering chakra around them.

Lobo pointed, almost accusingly, at Heiseki, "_Relatzer no jutsu _is a kekkei genkai that runs in my family. You, somehow have it, your mother, Leta Hyuuga."

"It's-" he stopped before he said Alcido something told him not to, "Uzumaki."

"Still?"

"No, I'm just correcting you; the Hyuuga clan refuses to acknowledge her."

"Or you I'm guessing," he said continuing to circle them.

"No, I can't use my blood line limit."

He laughed, "I can tell you, you can."

Heiseki was caught off guard, "how?"

"I can sense the inner workings of people, with the help of the demon, Lobo, whose name I share."

"How can I use my byakugan?"

Lobo walked around them a bit longer then stopped, "Well, tell me this first, is my brother really dead? Can I really dance on his grave?"

Heiseki was silent, "I don't know your brother's name," he said finally, "How can I tell who he is if I don't know his name?"

Lobo walked right up to him, "His name is Zev… he's the only one who can stop me."

Heiseki was silent.

"Well?"

"I don't know."

"Then I don't know how to activate your byakugan," Lobo said turning away, "but do know this, until I am sure my brother is dead, I will keep attacking this village until I can find his grave and desecrate his body!" There was a flare of fire that made them look away as they heard a crackling of fire.

They looked back at where Lobo had been standing and only saw fire. Someone approached from behind and Heiseki drew a kunai, "Whoa! It's me, who was that?"

"My uncle," Heiseki said turning, back to look at the fire, "I think we should go find my parents, or my grandparents."

Emi nodded mutely.

Their close encounter spurring them on, it took them only moments to find the Hokage, "Grandpa!" Heiseki shouted as he neared.

Gamabunta looked at him, "Well, look what the-"

"I wish you had told me my uncle was a crazed lunatic!"

Naruto jumped down to next to Heiseki, "What?"

"We just saw Lobo, he says until he can dig up my dad's grave and desecrate his body, he won't stop attacking this village."

"Oh yeah, that sounds like him," A voice said from behind them, the face unfamiliar, but the way he stood and the grasp he had on his wife's hand told all who he was.

Heiseki nodded and then looked away from everyone, "He also said I could unleash byakugan."

"Did he now?" Naruto said looking at Heiseki.

"Yes, he told me that he could tell me, if I told him if my dad was dead or not."

"What'd you say?" Zev asked.

"I told him I didn't know who you were."

"That works," Zev said shrugging, he put a hand on Heiseki's shoulder, "I don't know if he was lying or not, but you did the right thing not telling him. You were strong."

Heiseki nodded, "Thanks," he said and looked at Emi, "but I was more concerned about protecting Emi."

Zev smiled, "Well, good job on that too, she doesn't looked harmed at all."

Emi smiled, "Thank you."

Two ninja appeared, Kakashi and Gai, "Hokage-sama!" Kakashi started.

"The sand ninja, Ai, Sahlhi, and Saken are trapped by the enemy; we're attempting to help them, but-"

Naruto cut them off, "Where?"

"Over at the…" Gai trailed off.

"Wow…" Kakashi breathed out.

Everyone turned as a shadow fell over the village. Naruto commented, "Mental note to self, never get in between Gaara and his children…"

Heiseki had never seen Gaara before, but he assumed the ninja on top of the mass of flying sand that cast a shadow all over the village was him. He had brown hair short hair. He had a tattoo over his left eye that read, "love." His eyes were surrounded by dark circles that looked like he was never allowed to sleep. He had a gourd on his back and wore dark clothing.

He slowly levitated down, "I already dealt with those who were attacking my sons and Sahlhi's wife."

Naruto looked at all the sand, "Was all that necessary?"

"No," he said shaking his head as it fell onto the village, "But, my ninja intercepted a letter that said you were going to be attacked today, that's the real reason I'm here."

Naruto nodded and held out his hand, "a helping hand is always welcome."

Gaara extended his hand and shook Naruto's, "Them you're welcome. It won't be long after my sand takes care of them all."

Heiseki muttered, "Too bad you didn't come sooner, you might have grabbed the Raikage…"

The Hokage and Kazekage looked at him, "What?" Naruto shouted.

Heiseki looked up, "We had to run from him, he was nearing us."

Naruto nodded, "That was a smart decision, he might have tried to kill you."

"Might? He has tried to kill me already," Heiseki said.

Gaara looked at Naruto, "This your grandson?"

Naruto nodded, "A bit of a handful," he said smiling, and putting a hand on Heiseki's head and ruffling his hair a little, "You have some grand children of your own don't you?"

A girl about Heiseki's age came down on the sand. She didn't wear sandals. She had a tan vest and a tan skirt. She looked at Heiseki and smiled, she looked at Naruto and then at Gaara, "Is this the Hokage?"

Gaara nodded and pulled her close to him, "This is my grand-daughter, Sanyo."

Naruto nodded at her, "So, do you have control of sand like your grandpa and father?"

She smiled and nodded as the sand rose up behind her in a perfect image of Naruto.

He smiled, "Well then, I don't doubt you'll become a fine kunochi."

Gaara smiled weakly, "She doesn't have as much control as I do, or Sahlhi, rather, she thinks of the end result and the sand attempts to make it."

Naruto frowned, "I'm afraid I don't follow."

Gaara nodded, "I can understand, you do not control sand, as we do, so it's difficult to put into words…" he paused as he thought, "It's like… molding clay… you get the shape you want in your head, and then your hands move to make that shape, Sanyo on the other hand, gets the image she wants, and the clay molds to what she wants."

"But isn't that a good thing?" Heiseki asked.

Sanyo shook her head smiling, pleased that Heiseki was paying attention, "No, because unlike my grandpa, and my dad, I only have a set amount of sand I can manipulate."

"It's like this," Gaara continued, "While if we wanted to make something bigger then the amount of clay we had started with, we would simply add more clay, Sanyo can't do that."

"Ah…"

"I think it's okay though," Sanyo said, "I can do things so much quicker then they can so I'm okay."

"What do you mean?"

She looked around and then lifted up a piece of a rock, "See this?" a blast of sand hit it and it was suddenly covered with a picture of Heiseki and Emi, "That's what I can do."

Naruto nodded, "I see."

Gaara looked at him, "She also can't deactivate her sand shield like I can."

Naruto nodded and Gaara smiled, "Well, I believe that's the last of them. He said as a bit of redder sand filled his gourd, "Shall we talk indoors?

-S-T-O-N-E-W-A-R-R-I-O-R-

Sanyo drank a glass of water, "Ah… that's much better," she said setting the glass, that she made from her sand, down and sand blasted it until it had roses all along the outside.

"Sanyo, stop doing that, you know your father hates it," Ai said, she looked at Gaara, "Where's Shasai?"

"With Temari," Gaara answered, "And let her do it, she's proved time and time again that when she loses some sand, she can make more."

Naruto laughed and looked at Gaara, "It's been too long. How have you been?"

"Well enough," Gaara answered, "and I agree, it's been too long. How have you been?"

Naruto groaned and looked at the paper work on his desk. He smiled and pushed it all off, "I've been better," he said as the clutter fell down on the ground.

Sanyo laughed, "You're worse then he is," she said laughing.

Hinata sighed and began picking up the papers, "See? I told you, Sakura, could you be a dear and hold Shin for a while?"

Sakura took Shin out of Hinata's arms, "Of course," she said smiling at Shin.

Shin was only a few months old, Naruto's wish for another daughter had been granted.

Gaara looked at Hinata and then at Naruto, "The years have been kind to both of you," he looked at Leta and the now revealed Zev, "more so to you two."

Naruto shrugged, "My chakra seems to have great rejuvenating properties, more so in Zev, I suppose it has something to do with the demons sealed in us."

Gaara nodded, "That would make a lot of sense, seeing as demons can live thousands of years, even a little of their chakra would provide life spans to us humans."

Sakura began to scribble something in her note pad, "don't mind me, just keep talking."

Gaara looked at each of the individuals in the room and sighed, "I feel slightly guilty, but I must ask that all except me and Naruto leave the room, this is an urgent matter and I cannot risk that even one of you may not be completely loyal to us two Kages."

Zev was the first to stand, "I understand, I felt the same way when I was running from Lobo, let's go everyone," Zev stopped before leaving the room, "I know that you are indeed Gaara, but I feel I should say this since we're on the most insecure grounds we can be on," he turned and smiled, "even with that sand shield, nothing can protect you from Naruto if he so wishes to kill you," he said it so cheerfully that it was almost laughable.

Gaara nodded, "I felt that miles away from this village, I know full well how powerful he is."

"Okay," Zev said turning.

Sanyo pouted from outside the room, "It's not fair, he knows I'm me."

"It's not even that," Heiseki said stoically, "It's that the less people who know what happens beyond those doors, the less of a chance it gets leaked out to those it's not supposed to reach."

Sanyo sighed and let some sand flow through her toes, "I know that," she said folding her hands across her chest, "I still don't like being treated like a little girl."

Zev and Heiseki both suddenly jumped up, Zev drawing his twin swords and Heiseki a kunai. Zev looked at Sanyo and Emi, "You two, cover your eyes, someone is approaching and if they know that I'm alive then this village is in serious trouble-"

"But I knew that already," the approacher said, "and I guarantee that I'm not the one you have to be worrying about Zev."

Zev relaxed and sheathed his swords, "Keishin?"

She smiled, "That's me," she stopped in front of them and bounced on her toes, "How have you been?"

"Good, a little nerve wracked, but good."

"That's good," she said smiling, she looked at Heiseki, "I haven't met you before, what's your name, little defender."

Heiseki gave a look that said he thought she was crazy, "Heiseki," he said, "It means warrior stone."

She continued to smile, "I'm Keishin, the Mizukage."

Heiseki suddenly respected her, "Mizukage-sama," he said bowing.

She laughed and made him stand up straight, "oh come now, I'm just a little skilled, that's all," she looked at Zev and then at Leta, "wow, the years have been kind."

Leta giggled and put her hand in Zev's. He sighed, "Everyone's been saying that."

Keishin continued to smile and Heiseki began to think that nothing could break her smile, "Why'd you call me little defender?"

"Well, don't you know what's in your own heart?"

Heiseki's face continued to stay stoic, "What are you talking about?"

"Ah," she said losing her smile for only a moment, "You'll know eventually, when it comes time to act," she looked at Zev, "I'm assuming I'm late for the battle, which means that the Kazekage came, so are they both through there? The Kazekage and the Hokage?"

Zev nodded, "That they are, but they asked us to step out."

Keishin walked forward, "That's okay, they'll understand if I go in."

Zev grabbed her arm, "sorry, but I have to be sure, what were the four things you noticed about me when we met way back then?"

Keishin smiled, "it's not that hard, they still appear in you know, the alliance Lobo started, family, although then when it was Lobo himself, it's now the safety of your family, enemies, then it was Lobo again and his friends who'd attack your friends to get to you, and lastly friends, who you are now glad you can count on to help defend this village, and the others that we are all tied to thanks to you."

"Yeah," Zev said letting her go, "That proves without a doubt it's you."

Keishin smiled, "Well, I'll make sure to make time and catch up with you all later," she said opening the door and closing it behind her.

Heiseki bit his lip as she went in, "I'm still wondering why she called me little defender…"

Zev laughed, "Well, you're young compared to her."

"That explains the little part, and I figured that, but I didn't get the defender part."

Zev put a hand on his shoulder, "You'll know when it comes time to, but in the mean time you should be training, as to be better prepared for the coming battles…"

Heiseki nodded and turned to leave, Emi followed closely behind.

Sanyo jumped up, "Wait! I'm coming too! I'm going to die of boredom if I sit around her listening to adults yak and yak."

Heiseki shrugged and waited for her to catch up. He looked at Emi, "should we find Gaichuu first?"

Emi made a shadow clone and it ran off. She put her hand in his, "There, now you don't have to worry."

He smiled and kissed her on the cheek. He looked back when he heard sand blasting something. Sanyo held up a stone picture of them kissing, "Sorry, it's just so cute!"

She gave it to Emi and followed them, "Well, shall we go?" Heiseki said after Emi had put it away.

Zev made a shadow clone himself and it ran off. Leta looked at him, _why'd you do that? _

He looked back at her, "I sent it to get Emiko to help them train. And for her to keep an eye on them."

Leta nodded, _you don't think that he'd do anything unbecoming?_

He sat down next to her, _look, _he said to her via their connection, _I think Heiseki's honorable, but…_

_You don't want him to be tempted to do anything otherwise._

_Exactly, _he laughed and kissed her on the cheek, _if I didn't know better, I could say you could read my mind._

Leta laughed and leaned into him and set her head on his shoulder, "Zev…"

"Yes?" he whispered back to match her volume.

"Have you given any thought to what we want to name our daughters?"

"A little early for that don't you think?" he paused for a moment, "Amebi… for one of them…"

"Amebi?"

"I used to keep a tombstone for people who died at Lobo's hand… she was the first…"

"Did you know her?"

"She was my sister."

Leta stood up straight, "You never mentioned her before!"

Zev sighed, "She was murdered, by Lobo, for a jutsu…"

"Oh…"

"She wasn't yet two, when Lobo killed her."

Leta put a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry, and I love that name."

Zev nodded, "Thanks… it was a name I had picked out for her."

Leta leaned a bit more into Zev, "I wonder what they're talking about in there."

He nodded, "I do too, but I'm more concerned about Heiseki."

She smiled a little, "You're right, so am I."

Heiseki sat down cross legged, "Emi why don't you work on the water walking, I need to sharpen my mind more, I'm still not as good as I should be."

Emi looked at Heiseki, "How can you even think that? You're so much stronger then Gaichuu or me."

"Well," he said smiling slightly, "Gaichuu's got his own strength, and you have a much better understanding of the basics then I do, also," he said closing his eyes and making the tori hand sign, "I'm training to be the second greatest hokage."

"Second?" Sanyo echoed.

"I can't out do my grandfather," Heiseki said stoically, "he's the best, but I'll settle for being the second best," he began the build up as he slowly released his chakra, he alternated from thinking of building chakra to releasing it switching back and forth quickly.

Sanyo sat and stared at Heiseki for a long time, Emi was too. Emi turned and sighed. When she broke away, she looked at the water in front of her. To her, it felt foreboding. She breathed in and took a step out onto the water.

_Sploosh! _

Sanyo pulled Emi out of the water, "Are you all right?"

Emi nodded and shook the water out of her eyes, "Yeah, I'm fine, I still can't do this that well."

"You were fine until you set your foot down," Heiseki said, "you stood for a moment and doubted that you had the right amount of chakra set, which you did."

Sanyo sighed and sat down, "I should probably do the same as Heiseki, I've never bothered to train my mind," after a few moments she said, "how do you do it?"

Heiseki said without opening his eyes, "Since you're just starting, try to build up chakra and then release it, keep doing that quicker and quicker, it's hard, but you can build up a lot of chakra that way. I know that only a few people can make more then one shadow clone, but with a lot of training, it is possible to come up with more then one. Like me, I can make three."

Sanyo nodded and began to do as Heiseki instructed.

Emi sighed and stepped back out onto the water. She managed to stay above. She continued to stand and practice maintaining balance and control. She wasn't bad at it, but she could improve. She stood and watched Heiseki. She couldn't help but notice, Sanyo was attracted to him. Sanyo had sat awfully close to him. Emi wanted to get over there and move her.

But she didn't.

She thought about what happened today. She was almost useless to Heiseki, she wanted to help him, to make him stronger, but she couldn't. She wasn't strong enough to be of any use to Heiseki, she wanted to change that, but it felt so impossible that she almost began to cry, thinking about the gulf that separated their strengths.

Emi realized suddenly that she was sinking. She stood back up on the water and sighed. She turned when she realized suddenly Heiseki was right behind her, "You okay?" he asked.

She sighed, "Can we talk?"

"Of course," he sat helping her off the water, "I'll always make time to talk to you."

"Thanks," she said, "but I meant away from everyone else," She walked away from Sanyo and then when she was far enough away that she couldn't hear or see them, turned and began to talk, "It's just that, I'm so weak compared to you, I can't be of any help to you."

Heiseki was obviously confused, but let her continue.

"It's just that, I can't help but feel like you're constantly protecting me. You waited a year before I was strong enough to take a C ranked mission. Today, you hid with me when Lobo was nearing us, when we got away, you tried to hide me before you were going off to fight."

Heiseki wasn't sure where this was going, "Emi… what's wrong?"

"I'm so weak, but you're so strong… it's almost like we're completely opposite of each other."

"Emi…"

"I'm not sure we should be together…"

Heiseki was like a stone, a crushed stone, "Are you sure?" he said.

_NO! I DON'T WANT THIS! _Emi screamed in her mind, but all that came out was a whispered, "Yes…"

Emi couldn't bear to look Heiseki in the eyes. His face, his stance, his expression, all cold as a stone, but his eyes, they reflected what was going on in side of him.

Heiseki closed his eyes and breathed slowly, "All right," he said slowly.

_NO! _Emi wanted to shout.

"I don't feel the same way, but… if you really want to…" he paused to let her say her mind, but her throat closed up, "We'll break up."

Emi nodded slowly, she thought of how weak she was compared to Heiseki. She could see in his eyes, that she had hurt him.

Heiseki walked away slowly, glancing over his shoulder several times before getting out of sight, "Emi," he said, "If you ever want to change your mind about this, you know where you can find me, on the Hokages' faces," he turned away and then left.

Emi collapsed and began to cry.

Heiseki sat down back in his spot and made the ryu hand sign. He breathed slowly, partially to keep his own emotions in check and partially to keep his chakra steady.

Sanyo looked at him, "Something happen?"

Heiseki sighed, "We just broke up…"

"I'm sorry," she said.

"As am I."

Sanyo was slightly taken aback by how much colder he sounded. She continued to be taken aback every time she heard him speak from that point on…


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 

Two years passed, and Heiseki continued to be a stone in everything that he did. Others picked up on it, and occasionally, when they remembered back when he was a bit of a prankster and would skip school, would feel a pang of pain in their hearts.

The only thing that made him smile was Amebi and Ameki, his sisters. Leta smiled when she saw Heiseki smiled. She was glad that Ameki, whose name means happy rain, could make Heiseki smile, when nothing else seemed to anymore.

Heiseki was still a genin, despite his skill and experience, as were Emi and Gaichuu, who he hadn't seen since that day. He could feel his stone façade break apart when he neared them, and to him that was all that he had left.

Heiseki went with his grandfather often to his trips to the Village Hidden in the Sand and the Village Hidden in the mists. Everything seemed to have slowed after his threat to Lobo. No one doubted he would follow through on it.

He often was seen with Sanyo, who had become somewhat his new girl friend after some time, although he never smiled with her. Sanyo grew stronger with time, as did Heiseki, but he did so at a frightening pace.

He constantly trained. No one bothered to look for him, they knew where he was even if he wasn't seen in weeks. He was one of three places, the training grounds, his home, or the fourth Hokage's face.

He continued to grow in strength and in height, he could have been described as a giant. Heiseki had to watch his head coming in through some doors. His father doubted that he was going to grow any more, as it would have been very unnatural if he did.

He was even more skilled after he learned that his defect in his genetics altered more then just his eyes. It also affected his chakra. Instead of the wind and lightning combination that his father had, and his sisters had, he had a lighting and earth, creating magnetism.

On his left arm, was a tattoo, is red because it was made with blood, rather then the ink that was normally used. He had spent months ensuring that it would achieve his desired effect, creating a fuuma shuriken. He would create three shadow clones and each would smear blood down the center of the tattoo. Throwing it and using his powers of magnetism, would have it continually spin around them, and using _kage shuriken bushin no jutsu_ create an impenetrable defense of swirling metal.

There had been an instance where one ninja from the cloud had entered the village, probably for sabotage, although the Cloud village refused the idea that they had anything to do with it.

Heiseki had found him and was merciless in his execution.

Sanyo had helped him with his arm, because she cared for him, even though she knew, deep inside, that Heiseki didn't feel the same for her, he still cared for Emi.

Sanyo sighed as she walked along the streets of Kohona, she saw Emi sitting over a bowl of miso ramen, _Heiseki's favorite, _she thought, thinking when she would drag Heiseki out of his training and into the real world.

Emi had grown in body as in mind, men were a problem for her, not because she couldn't attract any, the reverse of that was a problem in and of it self, but finding a man who was more interested in her rather then her body was a problem.

Emi's had grown in height, but was still small in comparison to a great many people, almost in a way a reverse of Heiseki. She continued to wear heels everyday as to add to her height.

Sanyo walked in, "Hello, Emi," she said.

"Oh, hello," Emi said sadly, the saddest Sanyo had heard her since her break up with Heiseki.

"Something wrong?"

"Nothing you can help with, is there something you need?"

Sanyo sighed, "I can't find Heiseki…"

Emi sighed and ate some of her ramen, "You know, for our first date, we came here and had some ramen in the park and came back and fixed this place up," she took a drink and then said, "It's been three months…"

"Say what?" Sanyo asked sitting down next to her friend.

"Every three months, Heiseki sits and thinks for the entire day, I don't know about what though, I wish I did…"

"Where?" Sanyo asked.

Emi looked out of the ramen bar, "I'm not sure I should say, he goes there alone, and as far as I know, he's the only one he's taken there," she smiled weakly at Sanyo, "I suppose he has with you, since you're his girlfriend and all…"

Sanyo began to notice how Emi seemed to trail off at the end of every statement she made, "I have no idea what your talking about, but I wouldn't know anyways, I'm not really his girl friend, he never has asked me out, never asked if I wanted to do something, or if there was somewhere I wanted to go. I drag him out of his daily routine."

Emi sighed, "He's on the fourth hokage's face… don't tell him I told you where to find him, he might be a little angry…"

Sanyo shook her head, "He doesn't get angry, just like he doesn't get happy, sad, or, or anything really, he's just… a stone…"

Emi nodded, "When we were in school, and when he showed, I thought that was the coolest thing, he would take insults and didn't let them bother him. He'd blow it off like it didn't matter…"

"Why did you think he'd get angry?" Sanyo asked.

"Well, because he doesn't know that I know that he goes up there every three months."

"Well, why do you?"

"I come here every three months too…" she trailed off and stopped, not sure if she should continue with Sanyo.

"Why?" Sanyo probed.

"Well, because when we broke up… truth be told… I didn't want to, but I was holding him back, he was sheltering me, and keeping himself back… look at how much stronger he is now as compared to-"

Sanyo sighed, "Emi, don't ever tell him about what I'm about to do…"

Emi turned and felt Sanyo's hand across her face, "You colossal fool!" Sanyo shouted, "You spent a year with him, and he actually talked to you! Not like with me, and I still know him better then you!"

Emi turned from her spot on the ground, "You don't have any idea what it's like! You're skilled from birth! You're gifted, but I'm-" She stopped and cringed as the sand rose up to blast her.

"You don't really know do you?" Sanyo asked as the sand stopped short of Emi, she got down on her knees and said, "Heiseki didn't care about that, he cared only for you and was content… no, way more then content… to wait for and to shelter you. He wants for you to come running to him if you are facing more then you can handle and-"

An explosion cut her off.

Emi stood up, "What was that?" her sorrow in her mistake dissipating for the moment.

"That sounding like lighting, probably cloud ninja," Sanyo said running out and realizing that Emi was following her. She stopped and gave Emi a look.

"What?" Emi asked.

"Well for one, what happened to that sad and depressed Emi back there? Secondly, where do you think you're going?"

Emi ignored the first, "I'm coming to help!"

Sanyo shook her head, "You can't help me, go find the children and lead them to safety!"

Emi drew a kunai, "I can help fight!"

Sanyo's sand rose up, "I won't let you follow me and get hurt; Heiseki will never forgive me!"

Emi's hand fell to her side, "What do you mean?"

"You idiot! Why do you really think he goes up every three months? I know for a fact that he didn't do that before you two broke up, it's because he's thinking about what he could have done different."

Emi stood thunderstruck for a moment, as Sanyo turned and ran away. Emi thought about what needed to be done, top of her list was go back to Heiseki and say she was sorry, but she had to go help Sakura with the children.

It wasn't difficult; the children weren't exactly keen on staying quiet and out of sight. Shinni and Youryu helped Sakura as much as they could as they moved the children to the hiding places.

Emi ran up, "Can I help?"

Sakura looked at some students who weren't sure where to go next, "Lead them to the emergency caves!" she said pointing.

Emi nodded and ran forward and soon found why they were unsure of where to go. The path was barred by rubble; Emi looked around and saw another path through the mountain. She led the five leading kids through the mountain but then it caved in behind them.

Sakura managed to speak through, "Can I just punch this?"

"No!" Emi shouted on the other side, "There's not enough room! We'll get hit too!"

Sakura sighed, "Can you go anywhere?"

"Uh…" Emi looked about, "Yes!" she said when she found a path.

"We can't stay and dig you out, follow your way out and then get to the caves, hurry!"

Emi nodded even though Sakura couldn't see. One of the children began to cry, "We're not going to make it! All the joinin are fighting already!"

_But what about all the genin? _Emi thought, "Quickly! I know someone who can save us," she turned and began to led, _Heiseki, please don't be mad at me any more!" _

She found Heiseki on top of the mountain. He suddenly turned and threw a fuuma shuriken at her. He pointed at her and a blue light emanated from his fingers. Emi's necklace suddenly grew heavy and she fell down, she covered her head afraid.

"Don't worry, I'll thin their numbers out," Heiseki said touching her shoulder as she was freed from her suddenly heavy necklace.

She looked up and saw Heiseki standing there. He was stoic but his eyes were brighter then she had seen them in a long time.

He turned as an enemy ninja charged throwing senbon and shuriken, he stopped on the ground, "_Doton Doruki Gaeshi_!"

A portion of land came up right and blocked the attack. He then set twelve kunais in it and made hand signs at a speed that would have made his grand father proud, "_den utsusu no jutsu!" _

The earth that had flipped at Heiseki's calling rushed forward, propelled by the magnetism that affected the kunais and crushed his opponent.

Heiseki threw several shuriken at his enemies. They dodged effortlessly, Heiseki made his hand signs, _"Den doton, Gyaku ustsusu no jutsu!_"

The shuriken stopped in the air and were pulled back by magnetism, slicing into every enemy that dodged.

Heiseki turned and looked at a mass of enemies. He raised his hand and the fuuma shuriken returned to it. He held it and made the hand signs, "_Kage bushin no jutsu_!" making five shadow clones, each threw their fuuma shuriken at the enemy, "_Kage shuriken no jutsu!_"

The fuuma shuriken multiplied. Slicing into a great portion of the enemy, the clones made more hand signs, "_Den doton, gan utsusu_!"

The shuriken began to circle amongst the enemy, creating waves of death and dismembered bodies.

Heiseki looked around and saw that the enemy was closing in. There was only so much he could do. He undid the shadow clone jutsu, as he had to have all his focus around him.

He shouted, "_Doton Doruki Gaeshi_!" and hit the ground on all four sides of Emi and the children she was asked to lead to safety. Emi gasped as he took a piece of rubble and placed it over their enclosure. She reached up and tried to remove it, but it was way too heavy for her. She realized that Heiseki must have used his altered kekkei genkai to move it.

She sat down and sighed, she couldn't do anything, then she realized that he was only keeping her safe. She curled up and sighed again, she just had to wait.

Heiseki turned to face the enemy. He looked at one enemy as he was about to draw his sword, "_Den doton, yobu kin_!"

The sword sprang out of the sheath and into Heiseki's hand. Heiseki made hand signs, "_Mikazuki no mai_, Warrior stone style!"

Heiseki created two clones that attacked with him, all three struck, Heiseki's style wasn't to create clones that would confuse the opponent, they were to crush. He used shadow clones instead of false clones.

Heiseki took of his belt, which he now wore three times as long, and wrapped it about his chest and around his waist again, so that it crossed his body several times. He thought out his next move, _usagi, saru, ryu, tori! _Heiseki thought as he made the signs, "_Den donton, den hi no jutsu_!"

Heiseki flew over the enemy, his metal belt lifting off the ground, and him with it. He flew over the enemy as he sliced through them with his stolen blade. He threw out his kunais and struck many enemies, but there were many more.

"_Arashi, ameryuuu no jutsu_!" A voice broke out over Heiseki.

Two dragons made of fog came rolling down across the cloud ninja. Lighting jumped back and forth in the cloud, incapacitating any in it.

Utsuha came down on Sharu, his wyvern battle partner, "Heiseki, what are you doing here?"

Heiseki pointed at the defensive block he had used to keep Emi out of harms way, "Emi came running to me with several children with her, they need to go to the caves!"

Utsuha nodded and brandished Dragon Tail, his sword, it was once called Dragon Fang, but keeping it sharp was just too much work. It was a massive sword with no hand guard and a very thick blade. Utsuha had the strength to wield it with one hand, "I can handle this," he said pointing at the enemy, "You-"

Heiseki rose his hand, "_Den donton, you no den_," and Dragon Tail leapt from Utsuha's hand and began to smash its way thought the enemy.

Utsuha shrugged, "oh well, _Katon, Karyuu Endan_!" Utsuha said as he began to breathe out the fire dragon. Sharu mimicked him, whether or not it was via Utsuha helping him, or if it was the sharingan eyes in the wyvern, Heiseki never knew.

Heiseki continued to force his will on Dragon Tail, until a strange chakra came into his range of senses. He turned and saw his mother running forward, red chakra and a white chakra visible around her. She ran forward striking at the enemy with her _Jyuuken_ combined with _Saceno no jutsu_.

His mother looked at the stone barrier that protected Emi and rushed to it, Heiseki landed in front of her, the grounding ending his flight jutsu, "Emi's in there, with several kids, we need to-"

Leta motioned for him to move, which was odd, as she never gave orders before. He did so, reluctantly. She struck the stone and it blew away.

Sharu came down and landed, Emi put the children on his back and Sharu began to rise, "I can't take any more, there are enough kids to crush my back, I'll come back for you."

Emi nodded and Sharu took flight. She turned and looked at Heiseki, "Thanks for protecting me."

Leta turned, "Heiseki, you can take Emi."

"Who are you and what did you do with my mother?"

Leta turned, "Your father's acting and speaking through me, when we fight, we fight entirely as one, even our pain goes into the other."

Heiseki nodded, "That makes more sense than it should," he grabbed Emi's hand and began to led her away.

He saw a cloud ninja approaching, "Die!" he shouted.

"Ninja centerfold!" Heiseki shouted back. After the jutsu ended, he struck back and killed the enemy.

Emi was standing opened mouthed, "Hei!" she shouted.

He suddenly grabbed her and jumped away, narrowly missing an explosion. They landed and rolled. He wound up on top of her, and it took him a moment to realize his position.

"Sorry," he said rising up, "I shouldn't of-"

Emi shook her head, "Hei," she said slowly, hanging onto his hand, partially to keep him from turning, and partially to draw strength from how strong he was, like a stone, "Remember how you said if I ever wanted to change my mind?"

He nodded, "I told you, you could find me on the Hokages' faces."

"I know this is a bad time, but, I'm sorry, I was being insecure and-"

"Are you saying that you changed your mind?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered.

"Firstly," he said. He pushed her away and threw a cloud ninja into a wall, followed by several kunai, "Secondly, I'm glad to hear that."

Emi looked at Heiseki, she shook her head, "Where are you getting all these kunai?"

The Kunai suddenly jumped back, and two jumped off the ground, "From the enemy," he said grabbing her hand, "Let's go!"

Emi followed closely behind. She was slightly afraid, only because she felt so open and vulnerable. She picked up the pace to remain closer to Heiseki. She knew she had no skills that could help, she was after all only a genin.

She almost laughed when she remembered the skill the 'genin' who was in front of her had. She smiled and felt the warmth in his hand, _I'm okay, as long as he's with me…_ he thought.

Heiseki stopped and looked at her, "the path ahead is filled with enemies, we're going to have to sprint through, I can't take them all down by myself and-"

Emi reached up and kissed him, "For luck, now let's go…"

Heiseki nodded and picked Emi up in his arms after making two shadow clones, "I'll be faster this way."

Emi put her arms around his neck and realized how muchu bigger and stronger he had gotten in two years, two years of straight training did that, _forget him being like a stone, _she thought as she buried her head in his chest as he began to run with his clones trailing and at least a hundred kunais floating next to them, _he's like a boulder_.

The two clones said in stereo, _"Kage shuriken no jutsu!_" and the kunai multiplied as they ran into the mass of cloud ninja. The kunai struck true every time. Heiseki was half way through when the clones became undone by the skilled strikes by the enemy.

The kunai swirled around Heiseki and Emi. He set her down, "Looks like we're going to-"

An explosion of seemingly black light shut him up. A few moments later Saken was seen running through the enemy. He stopped in front of Heiseki, "What are you doing here?" he asked as black spread across his skin.

"We're trying to get to the emergency caves," Heiseki said.

Saken nodded and smiled, "Well, I can help out," he made hand signs and put his hands across his chest and touched the ground, "_kotsujin no jutsu_!"

Skeletons jumped from the ground and Emi screamed.

Saken laughed, "Oh, my bad, I forgot to warn you."

"It's okay," Heiseki said making hand signs, "_Kage bushin no jutsu_!" he created five clones.

"Wow, as far as I know, that takes a lot of chakra," Saken said as he voice grew suddenly deep and the black that was spreading across his body, "Anyways, let's take care of this! My no-light can destroy quite a bit, but I'll need some help!"

He turned and his no-light shot out of his hands. HE ran along the ground like an animal tearing into the enemy.

Emi put her hands together, "_Kokuangyou no jutsu_!" she shouted and shielded Saken and Heiseki from the dark battle field. The resulting darkness that covered the eyes of the enemy caused a great many to panic when they were touched by someone, even if it was there own fellow ninja.

Heiseki looked at Emi, "I've got chakra control down really well, they probably won't be able to break out… I think…"

Heiseki nodded and began to slice through the enemy, his magnetic movement jutsus keeping the kunai and his single fuuma shuriken circling about and slicing through even more of the enemy.

Of course, no one could keep up with the speed Saken employed in defeating his enemy, with the strength Anupu gave him and his no-light techniques.

His skeletons weren't something to laugh at either.

They gave a whole new meaning to fighting until your bones turn to dust. If they didn't have a weapon, they would take their leg or there arm off and fight. If you broke a bone, they would use it to fight, using the sharper jagged edge to stab with. If you dismantled their bodies into pieces, they would piece back together and fight again. Even if you ground all their bones into dust, as long as their head was in one piece, they would bite at your heels, and if you fell they bit at your neck.

When the entire area was clear of enemy ninja, Saken turned to Heiseki, "You keep her safe, I'll-"

More enemy ninja came flooding in.

Saken groaned and used his jutsu to make an army of skeletons, "You go! I'll enjoy myself!"

Heiseki nodded and pulled Emi along, the kunais amongst the enemy rising up to follow. Emi looked at Heiseki, "Sanyo's here, and so is Saken, what's going on?"

"Gaara couldn't make it to Kohona, but he sent his son, along with his squad, to come and continue discussing our terms of our treaty, making it stronger for coming generations…"

"Sanyo came too," Emi said.

Heiseki stopped, "Shoot," he said looking around. He sighed and turned, "I just hope she's okay."

Suddenly the spoken-of appeared, "Sure, care about me, after you're back with Emi."

Heiseki looked at Sanyo, "How long have you been following us?"

"I've been with you since we met at the ramen bar," Sanyo said to Emi, "forget it, I know you love her, let's just get going."

Emi looked at her, "wait, I just want to make sure, are you really all right?"

Sanyo took Emi's hand off her shoulder, "Yeah, I know Heiseki cares only for you, he's chosen you over me, I'm okay with that, really, I am. But…" she walked over to Heiseki and kissed him, "I just wanted to get away with that once…"

Emi turned red, "Can we get going?"

Heiseki turned, "Yeah, let's-" the kunai jumped into a sphere around them with the edges pointing out.

"What is it?" Emi asked.

"Lobo's here…"

"You noticed?" a voice said, "Well, I know for a fact my brother's alive… although," everyone turned and looked at Lobo, "I didn't know before that you really did know."

Heiseki put Emi behind him and Sanyo's sand circled them, "Go away, I don't want to fight you."

"OF course you don't you pathetic brat! I'll tear you to shreds!" he pointed at Emi, "But I'll start with her, she's precious to you isn't she?"

Heiseki put his hands together, "You'll do no such thing, I'll protect her with everything I am!"

Lobo laughed, "Look at the little defender… you think you can stop me?"

Heiseki thought for a moment, "Hey, Emi," he said.

"Yes?" She said pressing into him.

"I finally figured it out, why my dad trains every day, I know why he's ready to fight any day… _Kage bushin no jutsu_!" Emi and Sanyo jumped. Thousands of clones said at once, "Still think you'll tear me to shreds?"

Lobo looked around and swore, "how could you get so much chakra?"

Zev was suddenly next to Heiseki, "He's had it since he was born, he got it from me…"

Lobo turned, "You!"

Zev smiled, "I don't have to worry anymore, it's you who will be the one hiding after today, the Hokage has already begun the plans to destroy the Cloud Village, not entirely of course, but they probably won't be strong enough to have a true Kage for a long time."

Lobo charged them, "I'll kill you!"

Heiseki made more hand signs, as did his father, "_Kage shuriken no jutsu_!"

Sanyo's sand suddenly expanded. Sanyo smiled, "Wow, I can control it!"

Heiseki put a hand on her shoulder, "Sorry but,_ Den doton, yobu kin!_"

Red iron fillings jumped up from the sand and compacted around Heiseki. He made more hand signs, _"Den donton, you no Den!" _

The iron fillings flew out and struck Lobo, he protected his vitals and let them strike his arms and legs. He charge and shouted, "_Kurai Chidorian!" _fire surrounded his hands and his feet, "_Kurai Relatzer no jutsu!_"

Zev caught his arm, "Chidorian!" His hands gave off an explosion immediately after shouting it and Lobo went flying.

"Uzumaki Naruto Yonsen Rendan!" Heiseki shouted his grandfather's secret technique, "Warrior stone style!"

Every shadow clone shouted immediately after, _"Chidorian!"_

After the brutal attack was finished, everyone was surprised when Lobo stood and simply wiped blood away from his mouth, "You think that will stop me?"

Heiseki smiled, "_Den Donton shiiru kin dasu no jutsu_!" Lobo's arms and legs exploded out blood, "That wasn't meant to kill you, it was diversion to put the metal in your body.

Lobo swore and rose shakily, "It's still going to take more then-" he stopped as Heiseki suddenly appeared in his face, "_Ookami no kiba _style, boulder crush!"

Heiseki struck with all four limbs at once, he drew his kunais using magnetism, "_Ookami no kiba _style, boulder break!" he struck, seemingly twenty times at once, as the kunais tore through him.

Heiseki jumped back, his massive reserve of chakra now failing him as he was sifting through Sanyo's sand pulling out more iron fillings and placing them in Lobo, "_Den Donton shiiru kin dasu no jutsu_!" Lobo was torn inside out.

Heiseki fell on his knees and Emi ran up to him, "Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, just a little… exhausted."

Lobo rose again, "You… you're going to have to do better then…"

Zev walked up to him, "You're like me," he stared, "No amount of pain or damage can kill you, only time…" Zev sighed, "Leave now, never return, hide, and wait for time to reclaim you…"

Lobo swore and disappeared as fire blew up around him, "I won't hide forever Zev! My children are also strong! Semiko also is cursed like me! I can use her for as many forbidden techniques as I want! Next time, we won't be defeated!"

"I'll be waiting," Zev said and turned, "as will my children," he walked up and picked Heiseki up, "come on, Sakura's probably already at the cave."

Sanyo sighed as she was left with her original amount of sand, "I didn't get to do much…"

Zev looked at her, "Don't worry, the Hokage's attack on the Cloud Village includes the Kazekage and the Mizukage, you can join in if you want."

Sanyo nodded, "Yeah, I probably will."

Emi walked along side Heiseki, "Are you all right?" she asked again.

Heiseki nodded, "Just tired… I didn't know I had so much chakra."

"You opened your first chakra gate, in us, it's more like a flood gate, it's holding back our massive chakras."

Heiseki looked at his father, "What was that about him being like you?"

Zev closed his eyes, "He and I both performed a jutsu that required our lives, but I gave my life for those who are precious to me, he did it for revenge. Both took their toll, but we both came back, we can't yet die, we have to live out our lives, which is fine by me, but Lobo feels that he has to destroy me, as a result of listening to the dark demon inside of him. He looked at Heiseki and smiled, the same thing goes for your mother as well, who is connected to me in mind, body, and spirit."

"What about that Semiko?"

"His wife," Zev responded, "I don't know, I haven't seen her since well…" he couldn't quite recall when.

Heiseki sighed, "I wonder if I'll get my byakugan anytime soon…"

"I don't know," Zev answered, "I hope so though, it'd be a shame if you never got to do it when you could…"

Heiseki smiled, "Well, I guess we'll have to wait and see."

-S-T-O-N-E-W-A-R-R-I-O-R-

Two weeks later, Naruto threw his hat on the desk, "Mission, destroy the Cloud Village, was a success," He told his wife, "It will be some time until they can even think about calling themselves a ninja village anymore."

Hinata walked up to her husband, "You didn't kill any of the civilians did you?"

"Like they did to ours? No… we didn't."

Hinata sighed and kissed her husband, "I'm glad."

"About what?"

She smiled and looked into his blue eyes, they were colder then before, as what came from being Hokage, "That somewhere, deep inside this man, is that happy cheerful boy that I fell in love with," she kissed him, "the one who had trouble killing the boy who killed his friend."

Naruto smiled and kissed his wife on her forehead, "I'm not exactly sure that's a good thing, I wonder if I should tell Sasuke about that… he was content with knowing Haku was killed, but I wonder…"

Hinata shook her head, "Probably not the brightest idea," she said letting down her hair, "I've missed you these past two weeks."

"As I you," Naruto said smiling and kissing his wife.

There was a knocking at the door and Naruto and Hinata both groaned. Hinata sighed, "You're the Hokage, can't you get some privacy with your wife?"

He sighed, "Don't I wish…" he opened the door, "Yes?" he growled.

Leta jumped, "Sorry, dad, it's just…"

"Oh, sorry Leta, me and your mother were having some alone time, you know what I mean right?"

Leta instantly turned red, "I'll come back at a later time."

He stopped her, "No, no, just go ahead."

"Well, I just wanted to tell you… you were right all these years, Heiseki can perform Byakugan!"

"He just get it?"

Leta nodded, "and proved so many people wrong…"

Naruto smiled and nodded, "Okay, anything else?"

"Yeah, it's just a little request from me," she put her fingers together and blushed, "Can you make one of those threads that ocular jutsus can't penetrate? I want to give it to Emi… in a dress…"

"Ah…" Naruto said a sly grin going over his face, "I see…"

Leta turned, "Well, uh… I'll leave you to your alone time…"

Naruto nodded and closed the door and locked it, he smiled and laughed.

"What is it?" Hinata asked sitting on his desk.

He smiled and walked up to her, "Leta wants us to make some clothes for Emi that are like the clothes your father gave me…"

Hinata smiled, "Well, let's not think about that now…just make sure to make them better than the ones my father gave you, those weren't very good at blocking Byakugan "


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 

Three years later Emi kissed her newly-wed husband, "Sooo… ever going to tell me what you were doing training your 'chakra control' the other day at the hot-springs that required you to have byakugan activated?"

Heiseki shrugged, "I told you again and again, it's just that byakugan drains my chakra, I was working on controlling the loss of chakra and-"

"Do you really think I'm buying that? When I came out, you said that the red flower would have been better."

"No, but it's a good cover in case someone else asks."

Emi smiled and sat up, "I see…"

Heiseki stretched out his arms, "Amebi and Ameki joined the academy today…"

"Really?" Emi said putting her arm over her husband's chest, "wait… hasn't it been months since school started?"

"They're taking after their brother…"

"Oh no…" Emi said shaking her head, "Poor Sakura," she continued, "I bet that's taking a toll on her, even with that new technique…"

"What technique?"

"The one that keeps the body younger… she's been studying extra hard recently… she's on the verge of perfecting it."

"How 'on the verge'?"

"The Hokage's wife is using it, as is he."

Heiseki nodded, "That's pretty good," she nodded in agreement, since that meant that it was better then what occurred naturally in them.

"Hey… WS?"

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering…"

"About what?"

"Remember when we fought Lobo? And you unleashed all your chakra?"

"Yeah," he said raising his hand and clenching a fist, "My body's never been the same since, I have so much more stamina then before."

"I've noticed," she said giggling, "But that's not what I was talking about, you said you figured it out, why your father fights…"

Heiseki leaned over and kissed Emi, "You want to know?"

She nodded after she stopped kissing him, after waiting so long, it seemed right that she would be allowed to act the way she was now.

"We both fight for the same thing," he said caressing her face, "We both fight for love."


End file.
